Art is the Tree of Life

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.  Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is imagination itself.” – William Blake, 1799, The Letters

 

Trees and plant have been a part of myths, legends, folklore, worship and religion.  From The Tree of Life, to the Tree of Knowledge, the Banyan tree, Badhi tree, to Sacred Groves and the Christmas tree, trees have given sacred and deep meanings to humans throughout history. 

The many branched Tree-0f-Life concept, symbolising the idea that all life here is related and this illustration is used in science, religion, philosophy, mythology, and for many other ideas.  It’s a motif and a metaphor as well as a mystical concept suggesting interconnectedness in all life.  Think of family trees, evolutionary trees, diagrams showing many branches … trees!

The sacred grove was of great religious importance to a number of cultures, the Celtic, Baltic, Germanic, ancient Greek, Near Eastern, Roman and Slavic polytheism as well as being used in India, Japan and West Africa 

For the Druids, the grove is the centre of their religion, and in ancient Egypt they worshiped the Sycamore tree and gave us the first trees represented in ancient art. 

“Approach a tree we approach a sacred being who can teach us about love and about endless giving.  She is one of millions of beings who provide out air, our homes, our fuel, our books.  Working with the spirit of the tree can bring us renewed energy, powerful inspiration, deep communion.” – Druid Tree Love and the Ogham (From the teaching material of the Ovate Grade)

 

Trees have also appeared in literature, playing key roles in JRR Tolkien’s work, which I read avidly as a teenager, but younger still I also remember being quite fond of Enid Blyton’s “Magic Faraway Tree” series.  I was enchanted with trees quite early on.

With so much influence in human history (let’s face they help us exist here by providing our air!) it’s also not surprising that trees have featured in many other art forms.  I remember quite distinctly talking in art history lessons at school about when the first European settlers to Australia started painting and drawing Australia’s trees they found them hard to deal with.  Here were artists that were used to the uniform shapes of trees in Europe, not the straggly, random directions of eucalypts!!  Trees being so symbolic to humans have featured in art since the Sycamore’s in ancient Egypt, to ancient art in China. 

Moreton Bay Fig Tree on Magnetic Island

“Stand Tall and Proud

Sink your roots deeply into the Earth

Reflect the light of a greater source

Think long term Go out on a limb

Remember your place among all living beings

Embrace with joy the changing seasons

For each yields its own abundance

The energy and Birth of Spring

The Growth and Contentment of Summer

The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall

The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter.”

– Ilan Shamir, Advice From A Tree

I have spent the past two months thinking about trees and some of my favourite tree photos and the inspiring moments when I took them.  There was one extremely magical winters morning for me in Wangaratta.  I had left my motel room early, for a morning walk.  Wangaratta was covered in a thick white mist, but a bright winter’s sun was struggling to peak through causing an orange-yellow glow on the horizon.  Although quite bitterly cold, it was stunningly beautiful lit morning, the silhouettes, the shadows, the white frost on plants, and the glistening dew all in the early morning light had me entranced.  With camera firmly in hand I walked briskly to a nearby park I had spotted on a map the day before.  I only stopped to take a photo of morning light down Murphy Street.  I soon forgot about the cold, and was glowing with a kind of rapture … I could almost smell the potential photos, let alone see them!  It was just a matter of timing to get the light right.  I walked around an oval and tennis courts, leaving dark footsteps in the frosty grass, admiring the glow of water droplets on everything from spiders webs, to plants and fencing!  I hit King River and I followed it to a walking track through bushland, following more or less the river.  Although the parkland is in central Wangaratta, at times I felt I was in the middle of the bush … well apart from the occasional sights of residential properties across the river, and noising drifting over from the town waking up … oh and the one or two people who crossed my path.  It was just I with the river, nature, my camera, and a brilliantly golden morning light just sneaking through the trees.  A number of photos later, I walked back to the oval to head back to my motel.  As I skirted the oval, I pasted a number of tall gum trees scattered across a lawn.  The sun was streaming through the trees, the mist was rising and long shadows crept towards me.  It had been a morning with so many picture perfect tree moments.

Murphy St Sunrise

Another time a tree had me reaching for my camera whilst driving on a back road in country Victoria.  I had been in Charlton and was heading for Rochester, and rather than take highways through to Bendigo and around (the long way), I decided the take the back roads from Bridgewater.  Heading towards Elmore is a landscape that is really sparsely treed, long cleared for pasture.  As I drove past the end of a dirt road I soon found myself slamming on the brakes.  A lone tree had caught my eye.  I backed up, jumped out of the car to see the lone gum tree set against a blue sky dotted with clouds and put my camera to my eye.  Soon afterwards a ute of grinning country boys hurled past me in a cloud of dust …but by this stage I was happily stomping back through long grass with a maniacal grin on my face, back to the car … I just caught a great image … a great tree.

 

“Tall thriving Trees confessed the fruitful Mold:

The reddening Apple ripens here to Gold,

Here the blue Fig with luscious Juice overflows,

With deeper Red the full Pomegranate glows,

The branch here bends beneath the weighty Pear,

And verdant Olives flourish round the Year.” – Homer

So like to many moments in history, in legends, literature and art, I too have found trees to be inspiring.  So too have my friends and colleagues Angela Polglaze (chainsaw carver/sculptor) and Sian Adnam (ceramic artist) who will soon share some of their tree inspired art at our Exhibition Art-Is-Tree.    Art is the tree of life.

“Acts of creation are ordinarily preserved for gods and poets. 

To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.” – Aldo Leopold

For My Mum ... who loves trees.

Is street art, art?

This is not a creative outlet for myself ... but it is for other people and I have a habit of taking photos of good street art ... or graffiti.  Not all graffiti is street art in my opinion ... so is all street art, art?

I am getting quite sick and tired of the "tag" phenomenon, where graffiti or street art just becomes glorified lettering .... am I just getting old or is this boring for other people?  Catching the train into Melbourne a while ago I noticed that ALL of the graffiti along the railway line was lettering ... or tags really.  On some of them, someone has gone to a lot of detail ... but it's just words that don't mean anything to anyone .... unless you hang out with teenage boys and you know who the "taggers" are ...

I must admit I've been looking at graffiti and street art again, since seeing the movie "Exit through the Gift Shop" earlier this year.  Driving through North Fitzroy after, I recognised a sticker on the back of a sign that was an image by US street artist, Shepard Fairey - who features in the movie. 

Shepard Fairey sticker (the face one) on a sign in North Fitzroy.

I guess in some ways using the same image over and over again is some sort of a tag in itself ... it identifies the "tagger" .... but I far prefer to look at sometime like the face than a word an exaggerate dynamic font!!  There's a "tag" of a cat that is literally across the Western Suburbs ... I've seen it all over the place, in Footscray, Altona, Braybrook, Yarraville ...

Cat tag in Footscray on the side of a railway bridge.

And yes I don't mind the cat .... however I still love it when you come across a piece of street art that impresses you ... that really shows the creativity of the person, who, although breaking a law, is sharing something worthwhile with you.  I go looking for them ... rather than walk down a main street in Melbourne CBD ... why not a laneway?  I found the next piece pictured, in the city recently.  It's in a lane that runs from Bourke Street to Little Collins down the side of David Jones.  It's covered in graffiti ... or street art ... I really needed a fish eye lens to capture it properly ... I should go back one day with a different camera.

But does street art become art when it's actually commissioned?  There's no risk .... the artist is either paid for the work, or at the very least given permission to paint the area.  I stumbled across some recently when I took myself for a walk alongside Moonee Valley Creek (killing time before an appointment!).  I can only assume that prior to the artworks, that the concrete under this bridge was a prime "tagging" spot ... and I really do prefer the end results to a bunch of spray painted lettering.

Wikipedia defines art as "the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect."  I guess the fact I've even bothered to write about it in the first place ... or taken photos of it ... makes it art.  It must have affected some senses, emotions or intellect in me.  And if we go by the wikipedia definition (yes I know ... not the most academic of references) then the fact that tagging affects my senses (I hate it) ... well even that may be art.  (Big apologies to my friend Zette about this ... who is still fuming about the local tagger who has written "splash" on her fence .... she would really like to deal with Splash.)

So graffiti is art ... and one of my all time favourite pieces of graffiti is now long, long gone ... it used to be in Moor Street, Fitzroy ... I loved it so much I photographed it, which is great as I still get to share it with people.  It's not as paintly as some of the examples above ... in fact it's quite simple ... and witty ... and that's why I still think it's great.
Simple but witty ... a bit like me at times!

My Maiden Blog

I have been exploring a number of creative outlets over the years ... and now I am going to start sharing them and perhaps inspire others to "get creative".  I find making or creating things to be meditative, good for the soul ... and I need to ensure I keep this side of me satisfied. By having a blog, I hope to keep having to find new projects to report on - have other people add suggestions or even comment on my works.

Part of this has come out of recovering from a disc problem in my neck.  Idle time and hands were driving me crazy.  I desperately needed a distraction from the pain.  A friend wanted to play with clay ... has access to a kiln ... and the first project began.

I haven't actually made anything with clay since high school art classes ... in fact I still have one of the pieces I made ... a sculpture.  Anyway, it took some "refreshes" with books, the internet and practice to get back into the hang of it.  I don't have access to a wheel, so it all been hand built piece, but I do enjoy getting my hands dirty.

Various unfired greenware pieces

Can't wait to fire these!


I've also been playing with some porcelain clay ... for finer pieces.  At this stage I'm making pendants.  Eventually I will try something more sculptural but at the moment I'm enjoying re-exploring the medium of clay!

Porcelain pendants - unfired, no glaze

The thing about a new medium, or in this case one I haven't used for a long long time - there's things you learn as you use it.  Like the fact that clay shrinks as it dries ... or that as it dries it can warp.  I started this whole process making tiles ... and quickly learn that drying tiles slowing, between flat items will ensure they stay flat.  Not that I mind some of my earlier ones ... they feel more organic!

Early tile experiments

More tiles in various states of drying.

All items need at least two weeks proper drying before their first firing, and I'm still making pieces (I made about 17 pendants just earlier this evening!) ... so I'll keep sharing these as I go through the various processes of firing and glazing and any new items.

But my next post will be about urban exploring and photography ... another passion of mine.