Ah yes, this tree again! I tend to obsess over certain tree images that I have taken and will keep creating work based on them. I’ve mentioned the progression of the first iteration of the pieces I made for the participants in my retreat last year, then a piece I made this year with salvaged fabric and stitching, and now this one. This is a large piece for me. My encaustic paintings tend to be on the small end of the scale. I have been enjoying going bigger. They do take way more time and stamina.
The title for this piece was inspired by an essay by Herman Hesse on trees. I’ve quoted it here on my blog before. But here is a snippet from it again:
A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.
When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. . . . Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.
You can read the whole essay here.