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The Tree of Life: The End of War – As current news headlines remind us daily, war is one of our most human, most tragic activities in this fallen Creation. We embrace it all too readily even as we yearn for a time when its fruits – destruction, death, suffering, grief – are no more. I started with dark reds and grays – the colors of battle fire and smoke - as the “ground” of the painting. Amid this, I set the Tree of Life, firmly rooted and definite. The Tree’s color palette suggests it is drawing war’s destruction and suffering into itself, in a mysterious but powerful transformation. The change rises into the colors of spring and summer, with scarlet and amber flowers and yellow and green foliage.