Woven Wood

The first image that came into my mind as I studied the details of this weather-worn log was of Vincent Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'. It was all there: the swirling lines, the chipped texture, the wildly exaggerated cypress and lead-poisoned sky. It was as though the famous Dutch scene had somehow infused itself in the wood as it grew from a tiny tree.

I wanted to lend this photograph the same feeling of thrilling madness I feel in the painting. The wild swirls and bending colours made it come naturally – I explored the wood grain through a high-magnification lens, twisting the camera closer until I arrived at this composition. It doesn't phrase the same words as the great painting, but it might speak in the same tongue: myopic, self-destructive and tenuously out-of-balance.