Cecropia and Versicolored Barbet

2019
12 x 16in 
acrylic on masonite

This is an attempt to illustrate the universal with the specific. Cecropia trees are abundant in the tropics, and learning to recognize them opens a door into biodiversity. They are an ecosystem unto themselves, manufacturing fruit for birds and mammals, nectaries and Beltian bodies for security guard ants, fresh leaves for sloths, and dead leaves for birds to rummage through for insects. This is mostly a painting to show how one tree is an ecosystem unto itself, and they are all interconnected to a larger and larger web. The bird is a Versicolored Barbet (Eubucco versicolor). I chose it for the theme because it exists as a species in many different forms geographically- again the specific illustrates the universal. The tree in and of itself depicts the cycle of life, from new leaves, to fruit, and finally to death in the technically challenging dead leaves which I loved to paint. Perhaps rebirth is in the lurking insects inside the dead leaf cluster that the bird is probing.