STORY & NARRATIVE
Root of Emotion explores the hidden structures that shape who we become.
At the center of the work, a feminine profile emerges from an intricate network of roots, branches, and living forms. The figure exists somewhere between landscape and memory, suggesting that emotion is not something we experience apart from ourselves, but something woven into the architecture of who we are.
The branching forms within the head evoke growth, adaptation, and the pathways created through lived experience. Every joy, loss, connection, and challenge leaves an imprint. Over time, these experiences shape how we see ourselves and how we move through the world.
Beneath the figure, a heart-like root structure extends downward into the earth. These roots symbolize the emotional foundations from which identity emerges. Much of what guides us remains hidden from view, yet continues to nourish, influence, and sustain us.
Throughout the composition, circular geode-inspired forms appear as symbols of time, pressure, and transformation. Like stone, the self gathers layers. Like roots, emotion finds its way through what is unseen. What develops beneath the surface eventually becomes visible.
The work invites viewers to consider the relationship between feeling and growth, memory and identity, inner life and outward expression.
The figure becomes landscape.
The roots become memory.
The branches become possibility.
Emotion becomes form.
Root of Emotion is part of an ongoing body of work exploring memory, identity, nature, neuroscience, and human experience. Through slate, painting, sculpture, and immersive media, these works seek to reveal the hidden structures that shape our lives and the signals that connect us to one another.
A NOTE FROM JEREMY
Root of Emotion began with a question that has followed me through both art and neuroscience:
Where does feeling go after the moment has passed?
I have come to believe that our experiences become part of our structure. They shape how we remember, how we connect, and how we understand ourselves. What begins as a feeling can eventually become part of the foundation from which we grow.
This piece is an invitation to pause with the unseen roots beneath experience and to consider the ways memory, emotion, and identity continue to shape us long after a moment has passed.
Thank you for spending time with this work.
— Jeremy Morton
(Optional artist video here)
COMPANION ARTWORK
Included with this work is a companion slate carrying its own authentication record.
While smaller in scale, the companion piece shares the same conceptual origin and serves as a physical extension of the larger work.
Together, the two pieces form a single conversation about memory, growth, identity, and the emotional foundations that shape human experience.
ARTWORK RECORD
Title
Root of Emotion
Artist
Jeremy Morton
Medium
Natural Slate and Wood
Year
2026
Primary Artwork ID
443231
Companion Artwork ID
444547
Status
Authenticated Original Artwork
Collection
Signals Beneath the Surface
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jeremy Morton is an immersive artist and board-certified neurophysiologist whose work explores the intersection of memory, emotion, neuroscience, nature, and human connection.
Through painting, slate engraving, sculpture, digital experiences, and immersive environments, he creates works that invite viewers to explore the hidden architecture of being human.