Joell Jones’s Chalice Tree paintings take us back to the beginning of time, when most primal organic life forms began to reach and tretch into sky, when life was still composed of only yin/yang essentials and endless possibilities.

The images in this series are alive and haunting, familiar yet other-worldly, as the branches, leaves, or fronds can be experienced as polarities, either protecting or threatening, concealing or showcasing. Each plant holds a sphere or seed within, or perhaps an egg or a sun, which is both vulnerable and strong.

These paintings of soft, vibrant, earth colors: browns, yellows, oranges, lavenders, greens, speak of ancient beginnings, or, maybe, of future beginnings. Of new life and hope.

—Rose Black, poet