Madrid occupies a particular place within Sean Landers’ artistic development: In 2014, during a walk from the Prado Museum through El Retiro Park, he observed the carved markings in the trunks of the park’s trees. This encounter left a lasting impression and became the catalyst of a new body of work, the “Tree Paintings,” introducing the motif of the inscribed tree trunk into his visual vocabulary. The painting Joys and Fears belongs to his most recent series, in which he combines his renowned animal portraits with the carved tree motif to create a new thematic context.