Joshua Tree Forest

The Joshua trees only grow in the Mojave, only in the high country, only where the winter stays cold enough. The park holds some of the largest stands left: Hidden Valley, Queen Valley, the slow climb up to Keys View. The trees stand apart from one another, the way desert plants do when water is the thing being shared. Some are older than the road. Pollinated by one kind of moth, the way old arrangements work. Best photographed an hour before sunset, when the shadows reach east and the sky behind the arms turns the colour of cooling iron.

Slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, in our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee.