In the Garden
Leivick finds an epigraph for his show in a famous passage from Darwin about seeing the welter of the organic world as a reflection of natural laws, rebuking any temptation on the visitor's part to seek something Edenic in the pictures. Instead, spanning more than 20 years, they survey convergences of natural growth and cultural structure, from suburban gardens in America to hillside farmland in Italy. The wonderful "Salsepuedes Apple" (2003) describes a leafless tree presiding like a thousand-armed bodhisattva over a boneyard piled high with wheels, axles, springs and grilles. Relax the drive to identify its details and the image almost flickers into abstraction.
Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
Salsepuedes Apple, 2004
24 x 30 inches