Month 8 — Tree of Life/Grateful for the Dead
Don’t cut me down. Don’t grind me up. Let me stay, let me feed the insects and fungi. Let me shelter the creatures of the woods and be a place for them to fight, mate, eat and get eaten. Let me stand until I rot. Let me fall.
(6’ x 6’ 5”, paper and glue)
Detail—red-tailed hawk eating garter snake
Detail—non-native honey bees
Detail—catbird eating lantern flies
Detail—raccoon and oyster mushrooms
Detail—pileated woodpecker and babies
Close-up of hive-cutout
Sample of cutting process
Month 8 — Tree of Life/Grateful for the Dead
This month’s installment I call a successful fail.
This was meant to be a much more complex, dense portrait of the wonders and benefits of allowing a dead tree to stand; but I couldn’t finish it. I wanted roots. Broken chairs. Sprouting shoes. But working on something large, where I had to stay standing, was a mistake. Making something with a complicated composition was a mistake. Trying to keep “pushing through” was the biggest mistake. I was like a football player believing they need to keep playing through a torn hamstring.
But here is the success part—I let myself give up. I learned this month, in the body, precisely when to give up: when to turn away, take a nap, and move on. That is a successful lesson from a fail.