Birger Sandzen (1871-1954), Pond with Cottonwood Trees, c.1930, woodcut, 6 x 8 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of A. Merlin Steed and Alice W. Steed Collection.
Sandzen’s expressive woodcut features a towering stand of cottonwood trees, their limbs stretching in every direction. Through the artist’s interweaving of lines that seem almost to vibrate with energy, the trees are connected into a powerful natural network of land, water and sky. Thus the viewer is offered a beautiful visual analog to the natural interdependence of all things.