The house I live in was built in the very late thirties after the orginal one burned. And that fire gutted a pear apple tree at the south end of the house. The blackness of the burn has slowly been disappearing over the years, but you can see how the injured tree healed itself into two trunks in the left image. On the right is the other side of the trunk.
And I apologize for image of the full tree below, but the tree is closed in by dense growth on the side away from my studio, and the studio is too close to get a distance shot.)
When I wanted a tree that was mine I laid out some dots of color in a tight line and took them up with a brush and drew a trunk. When I looked at it, I realized where it had come from. I am finding out that if you are driven to do something without reason, the source may well be inside you, so ingrained, that its existence is separate from conscious thought.
What a wonderful image of healing you have caught in paint and words!
ReplyDeleteHmmm... this reminds me of an olive tree I saw in Sicily, on rocky ground (well, that would be all of Sicily!) that similarly reminded me of the power of life to just hang in there... and even bear fruit.
fresca --
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. Yes, I've always loved this tree and I've just sent up to my stock agency a closeup of one of its stunning blossoms that it still gives every spring. I wish I could post it in this comment. In the fall I gather a bucketful of downers and carefully extract the meat from the small, deformed apples to make a small pie. It's an out and out ritual.
Oooh--you'll have to record that pie-making ritual here this fall!
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