The American Chestnut

mixed media on paper

colored pencil, watercolor, ink, acrylic paint pens, oil

8.5 x 10 inches

2025

Mixed media piece crerated for the NYS DEC Arbor Day Poster Contest.

Extensive research done for the pieces creation. The American Chestnut, a tree once indigenous to New York, is currently functionally extinct due to a fungus introduced via the NYS trading harbors. There are many efforts to revive the tree with genetic modification to introduce blight resistance from wheat plants. SUNY ESF is one college where research is being conducted, and many of these blight resistant trees have been planted across Syracuse and Brooklyn, testing the plants growth and development. In the 1950's when over 4 millions trees died, this created harm not only to the animals and insects that relied on it, but also the lumber industry, and, most notable, the Indigenous communities whom once relied on it for many things ranging from medicine, to cultural spaces. See details on the image showing various names for the chestnut from surviving languages from the Oneida, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Lenape, and Shinnecock Tribes. Other details include the DNA structure border, and the chestnut at each stage of growth.