Watching the Tree (II) : We are nature (Tree spirits) 2020 – 2021
“Trees are a reflection of ourself, our connection to nature and creation itself.”- Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526. Carl Jung, identified trees as the archetype of the human psyche. Hermann Hesse believed that if we could learn to listen to the trees, we would achieve profound perspective on our human lives by grasping the deepest meaning of aliveness.
An American Sycamore Tree, 113” in diameter was struck by lightning in May 2020 outside my home in Austin, Texas. I watched the bark continue to peel away, breaking off in chunks over time, from its trunk and limbs, continuously, leaving exposed areas up to 11’ in height for 1 year. These works record over the course of one year the physical impression of those exposed areas through a rubbing process using pencils, pastel, and finger pressure over thin vellum on and around the bark surfaces and edges. To touch, watch, breathe with the wonder of life in the here and now is an exchange of shared healing. Renewal begins through devotional connection (physical, mental, emotion and spiritual), resilience, absence and presence, letting go, time, including the collective witnesses–the butterflies, the squirrels, the passers...This earth work series documents and speaks to the ongoing evolution and transformation in nature and in us.
All works are timed and dated.
