I have always been fascinated by palm trees; their potential for massive height, the layers of color and texture and their representation for me of home. So it was only natural that with my move to Berlin in 2015 began the start of my series of palm trees.

​I first paid homage to the palm tree with the precious technique of die cutting and collage. I was drawn to the silhouetted shapes and fine lines of the palm ferns that the detailed work allowed me to study. 

Santa Monica, 2014. Photograph by Nicole Yuriko Chouinard

I cut out shapes from used gift wrapping paper and magazines and layered them accordingly, like a mirrored image of laying in the grass of the Santa Monica bluffs and looking up at the sky to see paper like palm leaves floating in the wind. 
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​Wanting to further explore what the palm tree meant to me, I turned from the micro focus of die cutting to large-scale painting. In an attempt to recreate this environment of ​nostalgia I began painting wider views of vegetation and landscapes of California.

Leaving yellow lit, sunny California and moving to Berlin also helped me to realize the color palette of a place based on feeling. During my first Berlin winter I found myself seemingly surrounded on all sides by concrete - and I loved it. The backdrop of Berlin’s gray structured buildings created a contrast to my drippy, hazy aesthetic and freed me to paint the colors and the brushstrokes I felt for Los Angeles.

Palm Trio. 2017 Collage on paper

Magazine Palm. 2015 Collage on paper

Palm Parent. 2017 Collage on paper

I started working on larger and larger canvases, so that I could move through the scene as I painted and be a part of it.  As the paintings covered the walls of my living room and towered over me, I was once again standing in the vast beautiful loneliness that are the landscapes of Los Angeles.

Upward Palms. 2018. Acrylic on canvas