Nine weeks. Sixty hand-molded medallions. Ten complete rebuilds.
Most people who see Tree of Life in person reach out to touch it before they say anything. It isn't a painting in the usual sense. Nearly every element on the surface was formed by hand, dried, painted individually, and placed. This is how it was made, in Dexi's own words.
Starting with the background
"I started with a 20 x 24-inch heavy duty canvas and painted the background a dark green."
The dark green does more work than it appears to. Every color placed on top of it is saturated, and without a deep ground underneath, the piece would read as chaotic rather than lush.
Sixty medallions, made one at a time
"I made 60 individual medallions and 2 butterflies from DAS modeling clay. Each one was unique and hand molded and set to dry for a few days. I then painted each one with Liquitex acrylics."
Forty-six of the sixty made it into the finished piece. The other fourteen were set aside, not because they failed, but because the composition didn't need them. No two medallions in the painting are alike. There is no mold, no stamp, and no repetition anywhere on the canvas.
One hundred leaves, and a change of plan
"Then I molded 100 leaves, also hand painted. Originally I wanted to intermingle the leaves with the medallions, but later I decided to intermingle painted glass pieces with the medallions instead, and put the leaves on the underside of the tree."
That decision is why the canopy sparkles. Glass among the clay catches light the way leaves never would, and moving the foliage below the branches gave the tree a weight it wouldn't otherwise have.
Bark, grass, and fallen leaves
"The trunk was painted with a heavy textured brown paint, and I carved lines through it to resemble the texture of bark."
"The grass was made with tiny green beads glued to the canvas, and I sprinkled colored glass to appear like fallen leaves."
The entire lower quarter of the painting is beadwork, placed by hand.
Ten rebuilds
"Once I had finished all the components I started the assembly. I would come out every morning and assemble the canvas, but I was never quite satisfied. At the end of the day I would take a picture and put everything away. The next morning I would come back with a fresh idea and do it all over again. After about 10 rounds I looked at all the pictures and picked my favorite."
Ten complete arrangements. Ten photographs. Nothing glued until the tenth day, when she looked back through the images and chose.
That is the part that takes nine weeks. Not the molding, not the painting, but the willingness to take apart something that was already good.
A note on materials. DAS is an Italian air-hardening modeling clay, acid-free and formed without a kiln. The paints are Liquitex artist acrylics. Because the clay is air-dried rather than fired, Tree of Life and the pieces like it are made for interior, climate-controlled spaces, away from direct sun and humidity.