This is a new painting that I just finished yesterday. At least I think I’m finished. I’ll probably make some touches here and there on this piece simply because there are so mnay different elements, in the form of the many red roofs, that affect the overall feel of it. A lot going on, in other words.
It’s a 30″ by 30″ canvas that I’m calling The Encroachment, for what seems an obvious reason. The Red Tree here is quickly being surrounded and will soon be swallowed by the growing mass of the Red Roofs. There are many ways you can read this: as a symbol of the way our growing global population has gobbled up available resources. Or how, though the world seems smaller and more closelyconnected, there is still an air of alienation by many. Or maybe it is simply a symbol of nonconformity or freedom.
Taking it from a different perspective, it could be representing a sort of sermon on the mount with the Red Tree taking on the central role as preacher/messiah. I hadn’t thought of this perspective until this very moment but I can see how many people might see it this way, especially without seeing the title.
I don’t really know at this point how I ultimately will see it. I’m still just taking it in, trying to get past that stage where I am still inside it, painting, and can look at it from outside. We’ll see.
Redtree Times 
It’s a flood of “stuff”, that’s what it is – all of the things we allow into our space and time because we’re told we “should”, that they are “important”, that we won’t be “with it” unless we allow them in.
The danged painting makes me a bit claustrophobic. I think “The Encroachment” is a perfect title.
(Did you see that little bit of movement, there in the tree? It’s getting ready to run in the other direction!)
Another title I had considered was “Elbow Room” as in “‘Elbow room!’ cried Daniel Boone” from the old poem. That tree is getting ready to run.