They are on display at the Worth Ryder Gallery in Kroeber Hall. It is truly an energy crisis for me in a couple of ways financially and spiritually, Williams said. It s about money. It s about survival. Williams, a self-described nature lover who renamed herself Tree in 1990, scaled back her normally large paintings for this project.
Materials used in one piece include twigs painted white at their bases and secured with copper wire.
Called Focus, it reminds Williams of country roads in her native Virginia, her grandmother in a rocking chair, and the warmth and light of family. One square, Sacrifice, is covered in red paint with ambiguous shapes. Another, Symbolism, features light filtering through plastic bubble wrap and shining behind an African symbol that to Williams means love. In another piece, layers of gauze wrap over splashes of color in a piece labeled Healing. After a month hanging on the wall at the Worth Ryder Gallery and being subjected to viewers experimental yanks, two of the pieces had their own energy shortage they were left in the dark after running out of juice.