Missouri native Mortimer’s artwork merges questions of belief and revelation with a highly personal iconology combining biology, scripture, autobiography and art historical sources. His Open Spaces project began with selecting a tree within the KC Parks Department that died during the winter of 2017-18. Instead of its being hauled away for pulping or incineration, Mortimer has adorned the tree with a coating of metallic glitter, lending it a vibrant intensity that can be read as the reassuring glow of a slowly dying ember, or a symbol of the persistence of life in the face of death and decay.