Tree of Life: Polar Dendrogram

My work explores the interconnectedness of people and ecosystems—themes that have become ever more urgent amid the drastic climate change we are experiencing. I’ve always loved art based on the tree of life and the connections it illustrates. This polar dendrogram is my nerdy biologist interpretation.

Dendrograms are used most broadly for hierarchical clustering, to classify the relatedness, time, or distance between objects. They are widely used in biology. Evolutionary dendrograms show how closely species are related, and how far back in time groups diverged. They are quite literally “trees of life” that underscore how connected we are to each other, and to our unique and irreplaceable planet.