The Dancing Tree: Retrospective by artist Alexis Macnab
The Dancing Tree, Pen and Ink, by Alexis Macnab
My artistic background is in theater, dance, and puppetry, and in a former life I was a director and performance teacher. Then came 2020. The sudden suspension of my professional field, and the agonies of that tumultuous year, sunk me low. But immersed in those depths, I began to change my life. I started writing and drawing to calm my nerves and feed my hunger for narrative, metaphor and movement. I have been buoyed by these media ever since.
The origin of my pen and ink drawing, "The Dancing Tree", comes from a short story I wrote of the same name about a captive tree who wakes up to another way of moving in the world. It's one in a series of short stories I consider "fairy tales for grown ups" inspired by beloved picture books of my childhood. I always imagined these stories would be illustrated in the tradition of great Art Nouveau and fin de siècle artists like Kay Neilsen, Will H. Bradley and Pamela Coleman Smith. As my skill in drawing and composition grew, I decided to illustrate them myself.
"The Dancing Tree" was made with India ink on Arches Hot Press paper, and took around three weeks to design, sketch, and finally draw with a fine tip nib pen. The image shows a tree in a city park uprooted and arabesquing into the night sky while an urban skyline sleeps in the distance. Around the scene is a thick border of braided tree bark with top and bottom strips populated by arboreal leaf and seed pairs. It is one of the first substantial pen and ink drawings I attempted and thus has special personal significance for me. I am thrilled and humbled that it has found a new home through the Santa Cruz Art League's Open Studios 2024 Preview Exhibit!
About Alexis
Alexis Macnab (ey/em/eir pronouns) is an artist working across disciplines inspired by the way each medium collaborates with the story it tells. Alexis's artwork has been shown at Automata Arts in Los Angeles, Minnow Arts in Santa Cruz, IOOF in Mountain View, and on the Santa Cruz County Arts Council Open Studios Tour. Eir writing appears online in The Ilanot Review and Atticus Review. Inspired by botanical beings and animist interconnectedness, Alexis uses visual art and writing to dissolve false boundaries between person and thing, human and nature, life and imagination. More info and works for sale via https://aninfinitecoast.com.