Gospel of the Tender Wild

Gospel of the Tender Wild is a mixed media meditation on our intimate relationship with time and place—the plants that tend us, the seasons that shape us, and the living world that accompanies us through time. Layered imagery traces the rhythms of the calendar year alongside the quiet companionship of the more-than-human world, honoring the plants, animals, and landscapes whose presence brings joy, beauty, and connection to our shared ecosystem. The work offers a way of remembering: we are not separate from the earth, but held within a tender, interdependent web of life. Gospel of the Tender Wild invites you to notice the ordinary miracles of belonging and to recognize tenderness, companionship, pleasure, and wonder as sacred ways of being alive together.

Created in response to an invitation to participate in an exhibition exploring the masculine divine, Gospel of the Tender Wild turns toward Father Time as both metaphor and sacred presence. From there, the work expands its gaze to male-identified creatures and plants within our ecosystem, considering the many forms masculinity can take in the natural world: generative, protective, beautiful, playful, sensual, cyclical, and deeply interconnected. Rather than separating the masculine from the earth, the piece locates the sacred masculine within creation itself, inviting us to encounter time, nature, and the living beings who share our world as teachers and companions.