Thirty years ago, just about at this time of year, I finished In the Shadow of the Elm in the South Park Blocks in Portland.

In 2012, when I was at the Rauschenberg Residency in Florida, Matt Hall said that he saw this piece online and thought I might be interested in utilizing white “pit shell,” the kind of small shells that they utilize like gravel for walkways and the like down there, to do something similar. At the end of the residency, after I’d completed the painting project that I’d envisioned, there were a couple days left and I made In the Shadow of the Palm.

Recently Chris Rauschenberg sent me this long distance view:

You can see it from outer space!