Love eternal, renewable and cyclical binds together the bones of life. Vertebrae spiral like strands of DNA as they fly from the past into the future. Arteries from the heart bloom into evergreen pine branches.

Feathers, like the shed-horns of the deer and elk renew with the seasons. Elements move through the space of the drawing, the soil element that is charcoal stains a counterpoint to their beauty.

I found the cow bones and deer antlers in the wild lands in Central Oregon. For 30 years I collected bones while out in the BLM lands near my home or on a friendly rancher's land after the spring thaw.

Winter-kill is a term that took on personal meaning when I rode or hiked through rimrock landscape. The corpses of cattle and deer that didn't make it through the exceptionally tough winters randomly littered the dry spring soil.

The shapes and stories I read in the bones became imbued in my imagination. I drew and painted many works with bones in my personal art for years. The evergreen branches symbolizing the cycle of rebirth and renewal mixed with the bones echo my spiritual experience of my process.

The central human pair are based on a couple I knew many years ago. They had been separated for months by work and geography. I witnessed them greet each other for the first time in months. They stood near the high-tide line, embracing as ocean waves lapped nearby. They stood that way for almost an hour. I drew feathers as angel wings to symbolize the eternal nature of love after the man died in an accident months later.

Witnessing their intimacy and joy was the gift I put into this drawing.