Make Up the Tree (2005) – The Face of the Seasons

In Make Up the Tree, Beatriz Millar employs the image a tree as a structural metaphor for cyclical time. Each tree is rendered with a human-like facial presence emerging among the branches, establishing a parallel between natural processes and human experience.

The four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter—function as compositional and conceptual phases. The tree undergoes flowering, fullness, decline, and dormancy without resistance, positioning transformation as an intrinsic rhythm rather than disruption.

The title introduces an ironic inflection: “make up” the tree suggests the artificial restoration of what is meant to change. The gesture alludes to the human impulse to preserve or deny natural transitions. Within the works, fallen leaves are treated not as loss but as return, reintegrated into the cycle that sustains renewal.

Through anthropomorphic suggestion, the trees acquire expressive features that mirror human perception of time. The series situates seasonal transformation as both biological process and reflective device, emphasizing continuity between growth, decline, and regeneration.