The project developed first in Rome: I gathered fragments of bark, shed from the umbrella-pine trees, in the garden near the studios of the American Academy where I was working for six weeks. Initially, the bark pieces were of interest due to their character, shape, and specific coloration: they held an uncanny resemblance to the brushed, ink-washed marks of the Garden Drawings which I had completed between 1993 and 1996. Pinned to the wall, the brown and silvery-colored fragments proposed a schematic image of the pine tree itself at one-to-one scale, and allowed me to “draw” the image in reflexive terms.  Re-installed in Chicago, the work found its “double” in an unexpected way, matching the scale of the wood columns of the industrial loft-space of the gallery.