The artist describes Ancestral Forest as symbolizing the forest as “Past and Parent” and as “Treasury for
the Future.” The forest is the provider of traditional resources, of history and legend and is a source of
national pride. People, animals and plants were not just inhabitants of the forest, they were the forest.
They were governed by the forest, found medicines and wild foods in the forest and their homes were cut
from the forest. The ancestors sang their legends and found their symbols in forest animals. And today new knowledge about the forest will help contribute to the prosperity of their progeny.
Ancestral Forest has a companion piece entitled Sonoran Desert. The two paintings face each other within the lobby of the Stedman Education Center at the North Carolina Zoo.
