Openings Connecting: ARBOREAL PROJECT, part 3, the sheltering playground tree

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

ARBOREAL PROJECT, part 3, the sheltering playground tree

As one of many, I've posted one of my favorite trees, the 'sheltering tree' that stands outside my former classroom and graciously accepts thousands of children over the many years it's been marking the seasons on the sloping green or snow covered land around this fortunate school building.
the CHARGE: photograph a tree/trees on certain dates. the first two photos are from last week, APRIL, early spring, where it welcomes not only children, but happy robins. the last shows the shots from last august, november, and december. longer postings are dated 9/4 and 11/10 in my archive if you're interested. Julie at Lost Luggage began the Arboreal Project last August, and there are many links to see others postings as well on her site.
yes, never stop hugging trees!

8 comments:

M. RekaApril 20, 2010 at 11:11 AM
Lovely pics :)

Short Poems
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Blue Sky DreamingApril 20, 2010 at 11:58 AM
This wonderful tree along with the sky along with the bird...all spectacular! A great project!
Looking for photos of Yupo play?!
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SethApril 20, 2010 at 6:49 PM
What a stunning tree. It (he/she) is majestic in full bloom!!
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merci33April 20, 2010 at 8:26 PM
A magnificent tribute to a glorious Standing One...I love this idea of photographs of trees on certain days...

Have you seen the amazing and stunning book:

The Life and Love of Trees by Lewis Blackwell...my oh my ...

Happy Mother Earth Day!
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Julie PrichardApril 21, 2010 at 8:46 AM
SO beautiful, Neva! Thank you so much for playing along with us on the collaboration. Your tree is very special indeed!
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ELKApril 21, 2010 at 12:26 PM
it is a happy moment to see the span of time and season in your lovely photos...what a wonderful project you have been involved in!!
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Four Seasons in a LifeApril 21, 2010 at 11:26 PM
Dear Neva,

Trees are what grounds us and I for one tree to raise as many as possible from seeds and then plant them around the property while many others go to friends and their garden. I guess that makes me a tree hugger.

Warmest regards,
Egmont
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Renee HowellApril 24, 2010 at 5:13 PM
That tree in summer looks like a thunderhead cloud preparing for a storm. That rumbling, billowing whiteness in the sky, only here, it's a tree.
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.