Paul Collins

Region: South

Lately, I can’t escape my wonder at the incredible rate of biological growth at nearly every granular level of life here in Nashville. I am very interested in the form and implied meanings within this miraculous blight of fecundity. Hard surfaces are revealed as wiggling swarms, and solids are revealed as veiled honeycombs of interiority where water percolates through rock and bugs wiggle inside trees. It’s just wild to see people prune trees with a chainsaw only to see them sprout a thick fuzz of leaves when spring comes back around. As an artist I want to share the sense of marvel I feel watching vines turn majestic trees into colossal drum sticks, transform utility poles into chrysalises, and conjoin houses under tight-knit tendril coverlets.