TREES

 


Trees are vital to the planet and all who inhabit it.  

Humans cannot live in a world without trees.  For them it means a certain death.  On the other hand, trees can survive and flourish without humans. Even in death, a tree provides life through the making of functional objects: homes, fences, bowls and so much more. Rotting, dead trees provide an environment conducive to new life and homes for the forest inhabitants, in the air and on the ground.  The objects made from the wood can be refurbished and modified throughout centuries of use. 

Inspired by the novel, "The Overstory", by Richard Powers, I created this collage.  I have photographs of the life of trees through the seasons: new growth, full foliage, slumber and old age.  At the center is a weathered wooden fence still serving its purpose.  Next to it, a human skeleton; consequences of life without trees.  Initially, I left the background unpainted.


The more I looked at it, I realized, in this format I was looking at two pictures.  This led to painting the background with water colours.  

I imagined the colours, of life and death, that I would find on the forest floor before painting the piece.

is
The water colours brought the piece together beautifully.  Now some framing.  The idea is still in the fermenting stage. 

May your day be filled with creativity. 

Mary 

(Copyright 2025,all rights reserved)

































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASEMIC WRITING ART

Image
  I recently learned about Asemic Writing Art and realized that I had done some of it in the past without knowing it had a name.   Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing.  It has no meaning and no specific context.  The meaning or interpretation of such a piece of art is left solely up to the reader or viewer.  Asemic writing art is a hybrid art form that fuses text and image into unity and then sets it free to arbitrary subjective interpretations.  ( Wikipedia)     And so I put my hand to the task after doing some research and viewing the beautiful pieces of asemic writing art that have been created by artists.   Ginkgo Leaves  I turned these pieces into an artist's book.  I hand drew the ginkgo leaves, coloured them with water colours and ink and then proceeded with the asemic writing.   These pieces are abstract in nature and I used heirogliphic symbols and alchemy symbols to complemen...
Read more

NEW BINDING: FLATSTYLE AUSTRALIAN REVERSE PIANO HINGE BINDING

Image
  Summer is upon us and the solstice is just a few days away.  May rains have turned June's blooms and trees full of life and colour.  As it goes, inspiration also struck when I saw a different binding being demonstrated on Instagram:  I tried it out.  After posting the video on my Facebook page, I was informed this binding is called, the Flatstyle Australian reverse piano hinge binding.   The binding is comprised of two covers held together with an accordion fold and signatures.  The signatures are affixed to each mountain fold and secured with a tab inserted into the fold.  This creates a thickness at the spine and a thinness at the fore edge, which makes this perfect for photographs.   I covered the boards with chiyogami and made the accordion out of Tyvek.  I learned that Tyvek is not the best material to use for the accordion fold because it is too soft and the book has too much movement in it.  This is the first book...
Read more

AUTHORS, PHILOSOPHER AND EXHIBITIONS

Image
Window to the Community   It has been an interesting year.  One of forced withdrawal from society, to keep safe; one of a time to reflect on life as we knew it; and one of a time to create within one's private dome of creativity without interruptions.   AUTHORS: COFFEE WITH HEMINGWAY I had this little book kicking around for the longest time.  I used it, for a while, as a teaching tool. It's final resting place has become an altered book.     I created the small book, attached to the front cover, from the pages I removed from the center of the book.  In the hollowed out section of the book, I created two coffee cups with saucers.  The floral paper I covered the book and inner section are an example of what the wall paper may have looked like, in the surrounding room, where people were drinking coffee.  UNDER MILK WOOD BY DYLAN THOMAS  A couple of years ago, readers of the newsletter of the University of the West of England, Bristol:...
Read more