Watching the Tree (II) : We are nature (Tree spirits) 2020 – 2021
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 animals, the passers...This earth work series documents and speaks to the ongoing evolution and transformation in nature and in us.
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. In these works the act of rubbings serves as a testimony and translation for listening to the tree. The above works are a selection from over 100 works which document this period of time.
All works are timed and dated.
