This palo verde is in Arizona. It’s been trimmed, and it’s bare.
When I arrived in Wisconsin, the trees were leafing out. Seeing big-leaved trees again was great, they had just started to unfold and fill the trees. By the time I went home three days later, the trees had come into their shapes.
Change. We hate the idea, but we live it every day. The trees changed every day I was there. They were changing when I watched and when I didn’t.
Evolution is not something limited to ten thousand years ago. Evolution happens every day. We adapt, we behave a new way, it works, we keep doing it. We’ve changed.
Leaves are starting to push out, dark and fresh green.
Adapting is the stepping stone to flexibility. Flexibility is the doorway to creativity. We explore, we create, we invent, and we grow. Creative evolution. We change without really noticing it, just notice that our art is getting easier. More satisfying. More natural. Until we have fully leafed out and ideas come to rest in the shadow we cast on the earth.
Tree in progress to becoming.
–Quinn McDonald is an artist who writes and teaches what she knows. It changes from year to year.
I´ve been taking pictures of our neighbour´s tree for years, but always forget to take them on a regular basis. I do have them chronologically though to see the seasons.
Now we have two (one small, one tiny) trees that are offsprings of the original one. I feel it´s like taking family pictures.
Nice to see other types of environments.
It IS taking family photos. Trees are part of the family, I’m certain of it!
An interesting perspective of change. Many people see change as negative. You’ve spun it to make it a creative positive. Love it! I love your book Raw Art Journalling. I’m working on the found poetry exercise this morning.