TREES (2004): “At the end of the day, it is not the tree as a sign that matters, but the sign as a route to an array of truths, as evidence of actualities, of things worth knowing that are as vital to our lives as a tree. [. . .] Such humility toward life, the awareness of what we do to it and with what power, the concern with how we conduct ourselves and what endures: painting can convey these simply by teaching us to see, teaching us to find where evidence arises, in looking at city trees over and over and over.” (From the essay titled “If We Are Lucky” by writer/critic Fred Dewey, included in Lucas Reiner – Los Angeles Trees, published in 2008 by Prestel.)