"Quercus Virginiana ii" is an examination of a large branch on a Southern Live Oak in the yard of my South Carolina home. These trees live for hundreds of years and have borne witness to a complicated history, but because of the changes to our once rural landscape they are being diminished. This dichotomy-one of both permanence and endangerment-is underscored by the rampant development that threatens the fragile ecological balance that supports them and the vast network of natural wonders they host. How ironic that these iconic sentinels, that leaf in both spring and fall to provide shade against the sweltering heat and shelter in the cold, and can withstand anything that nature throws at them from hurricane to draught, are now are threatened by the unchecked overreach of man. Charcoal helps me capture the lush smoky richness of my subject-and scale helps me accentuate detail, pattern, and the fact that every single vine, leaf and piece of bark, while one of a multitude, is totally unique.