Twenry-three. Trees (in transit)

We sold our across town “Tree Art Studio” (and storage building) last April, 2011, and have been moving trees ever since. Those in these photos are awaiting, in the alley behind our home, their winter storage.  They are a small fraction of our total tree inventory.

Here you can see how I’ve sorted the trees by “motifs” (the recurring, naturally grown shapes of the tree trunks)–fork, arch, swan’s neck, loop, spiral, and some one-of-a-kind, eccentric shapes.

Storage, and the handling that goes with it, have always been essential to the making tree art.  I’ve moved some of these trees countless times over the past twenty years since I found them in the forest.

I still marvel at what each tree accomplished to overcome injury, gravity, crowded and shaded circumstances, and long winters.  And I’m still working–physically and figuratively–on an illustrated book about these trees, with the title:  The Contorted Lodgepole–A Poet’s Tribute.