Tree of Life

Long before anyone alive could remember, this tree was already old. The baobab — called the Tree of Life across the African savanna — holds water in its belly, feeds animals and people from its fruit, and outlives everything around it. Michael Mahue Moore didn't just paint a tree. He painted a witness. A being that has stood through storms and droughts and sunrises too numerous to count, its massive trunk folded and ridged like the face of something that has earned every one of its years. Moore grew up on the north side of St. Louis, drew Marvel characters as a child, and spent eight years at sea in the US Navy before spending decades more mastering the craft of fine art. There is something deeply personal in his choice of subject here — a solitary ancient standing firm at the edge of still water, its reflection shimmering below like memory. The tree is alone, but not lonely. It is the kind of presence that doesn't need company to feel complete. The water at the base of the painting is where the story deepens. In that reflection, the baobab exists twice — above and below, real and mirrored, present and remembered. Moore has always believed his masterpiece is still ahead of him, and in that philosophy lives the same spirit as this baobab: still standing, still reaching, still growing.