I Especially Love You When You Are Sleeping
2011
24″ × 36″ × 68″
graphite pencil, citrus tree, citrus leaves, medical tape, newspaper obituaries
I Especially Love You When You Are Sleeping depicts an orange tree, with most of its leaves fallen, balancing on two severed stacks of newspaper obituaries. The sculpture is based on the gift of a tree that was never planted due to Shpungins’ fathers’ death, the tree itself realizing a similar fate. The sculpture is methodically hand coated in graphite pencil with seemingly endless strokes. The title is an ironic reference to a phrase Shpungin’s father often repeated to her—the phrase also makes reference to the rarity of one to speak ill will after someones death.