Trees are Poetry
A dear friend shared a poem with me while she was enduring a most challenging circumstance - The Oak Tree by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr. It beautifully describes how a tree can bend and stand firm while overcoming the fiercest of winds. The mighty oak has strong deep roots and no matter how long or how strong those winds blow, it will continue to live and it will regrow in time. We may wonder if the winds of life will let up, but life is like the weather and it won’t be stormy forever. The poem doesn’t say how long the wind blew, but it does say it was so strong it blew until it was in disbelief that the tree could still be standing, and then it stopped. So often in those moments we see how deep our roots have grown.
Then I saw a wire bonsai tree and I felt such a connection to this poem and how we feel when we are enduring but standing firm. We can feel like every leaf has been stripped, limbs have been broken, our very foundation bent down, and we are barely hanging on. At the same time, we display a strength and surprising ability to endure. Our tree may be bent, we may never be the same, but we will not be broken. I set out to create these trees to connect how we all feel at some point, no matter what the struggle.
Trees also show how we grow together as families, how we feel supported, and how we flourish. I hope you can connect to them and feel the same strength and encouragement as I have when I sculpt them.
Each tree may mean something special and different to you. It may be a specific moment in time, a feeling, a memory, a trial, or just how beautiful and magnificent trees are. It may be trees growing together like a family. If there is a tree shape or photo of a tree that has special meaning to you please contact me and I would be happy to try to recreate that in sculpture.
