While on a camping trip to Silent Lake,I decided to take a hike one afternoon along the lakeshore. Always one for visual metaphors, I began to see a parallel between the stand of trees and the families of homo sapiens.


Moss on those intertwined roots made walking up the grade rather difficult if you hadn't paid attention to your footing, similar I surmised to family interaction. After naming this piece “Family Tree” I thought little more about it. Never did I imagine the effect this title would have in the near future.

My wife and I had been attempting to start a family for more than seven years, and had basically accepted the fact that it would be just the two of us. Two weeks after giving the piece it's title, we received the joyous news that my wife was pregnant. I guess you could call it life imitating art! We now have a marvelous daughter Alyson Skye Rutherford.The lesson to be taken from this work for me was never to give up hope.