An old tree rises out of complete darkness — twisted, hollowed, stripped of every leaf — and still standing. Its bark is built from layers of brown, grey and white, gnarled into faces and hollows by time. From the thick, weathered trunk, countless fine branches reach outward in thin white lines, delicate against the heavy wood below: strength and fragility in the same body. Created in mixed media on a wood board, this work is a portrait of endurance. The black ground removes everything else — no land, no sky — leaving only the tree and what it has survived. It does not bloom, and it does not fall. It stands.