Is it a profound loop to draw this dead tree with the branches of another dead tree? In my previous blog, I retriggered the sadness I feel for the dying or the prematurely dead. This dead tree had so many twists it survived in life and such height that it still reached the sky that I had to honor it. Even dead, it contributes to others: birds perch on its naked dead branches; birds peck huge holes digging out the insect homes created in the rotting wood. It was a blackbird that landed on it briefly. From the ground I stood on, I could see the bird lift its beak and wings which seems like the attitude both the dead tree has and what life loves to do: reach up.
I chose charcoal because it is a portable medium. Vine Charcoal is flimsy, flakey, almost ephemeral. But because of how soft it is, I can move it around almost like fingerpainting. You can see my fingerprint lifts on the right near the middle branch down. Vine Charcoal needs fixative spray. Once sprayed, the charcoal can be drawn over again and darken. This is the treatment I used in the tree trunk.
Most of the art I create is spiritually prayed over. This dead tree image is no different. What came out of this honor drawing is how alive a natural thing can be even when dead. Concrete cannot do much more than break apart. Trees continue to feed their environment while rotting to a fall. That’s honorable!
I’m not afraid of feeling sad. As a Sensitive, I feel sadness of others and of other things. It took me a lifetime to accept this sensitivity and use it for my own process and hopefully reach others. When I created this piece, I was showing it to my Native American mentor. He saw it as I did. I showed it to my Mother who suffered terribly in her life. She saw it as I did.
For me to face this tree meant to ask myself the question: as I age, will I produce or die selfishly? My answer came this week in spades when another mentor rekindled my vision: to teach and share out the wisdoms to help create a nature/human balanced society.