Joe Cutting Tree (2025 Preservation Print)

Opening out of focus, “Joe Cutting Tree” depicts a silhouette, perched on a ladder, sawing a tree limb. Elam cuts in and out, capturing the trimming of several extremities; the perched figure scurries around the trunk (at times climbing onto branches for the best angle). The edits frantically progress into a series of jump cuts as the arbor carnage continues. The short concludes with a pair of Converse Chucks descending the ladder, the shadowed figure finally coming into light, a male (Joe Hendrix, Elam's second husband, who frequents her work, e.g. “Joe and Greens).”