Oakwood Cemetery 2

Oakwood Cemetery 2

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 36 x 24 x 2

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Oakwood Cemetery 2 is not a traditional Southern landscape. It begins with what’s visually undeniable: the majesty of mature water oaks, but it doesn’t stop at beauty. This painting is part of a four-work series inspired by my visit to Oakwood Cemetery in Tennessee, a burial ground that predates the Civil War. Walking among the monuments, I was struck by the contrast between the quiet grandeur of the trees and the uncomfortable messages preserved in stone and sentiment. The oaks stand as witnesses, living, resilient, and indifferent to ideology while human history clings to the ground beneath them. In this work, the landscape becomes a container for memory: what is honored, what is overlooked, and what is inherited. The paint surface builds in layered passages that echo time and weather — growth, erosion, and the slow work of forgetting. Companion works in this series include Lost Cause, Oakwood Cemetery 1, and In Sure and Certain Hope. Together, they explore the tension between natural beauty and the stories we choose to preserve.