So, I did not intend to recreate the Giving Tree but when I showed the beginnings of my newest painting to some 11 year old, who shall remain nameless, he said "looks like the Giving Tree. If the kid was a girl". Damn! But kid! It's in my head and I can only get it out if I make it.
Really, I was reminded of the Giving Tree myself. Maybe that's where the inspiration came from, well partly. I love that book and anything Shel Silverstein did is wonderful to me.
But I am fascinated by trees and I have been wanting to sculpt one into a painting.
My neighbor has a sweet gum tree that has this wonderful bend in the trunk, like it is leaning over to talk to someone on the ground, so here is where my story begins.....
Really, I was reminded of the Giving Tree myself. Maybe that's where the inspiration came from, well partly. I love that book and anything Shel Silverstein did is wonderful to me.
But I am fascinated by trees and I have been wanting to sculpt one into a painting.
My neighbor has a sweet gum tree that has this wonderful bend in the trunk, like it is leaning over to talk to someone on the ground, so here is where my story begins.....
Sweetgum and Susan are greeting each other. they are old friends. Well Sweetgum is old, Susan's 9. The well meaning guardian of the woods is counciling Susan, warning her about children going off into the woods on their own.
He insists on calling her child even though she has told him her name several times. Susan used to be exasperated by this but now she thinks of it as Sweetgum's nickname just for her. He doesn't call any other kids Child. He doesn't call them anything. In fact, no one besides Susan even knows about Sweetgum. When anyone else walks this path they don't see, or can't see. But Susan is different.
And that is why when her old friend tells her "Child, you should not enter these woods on your own" she just smiles at him, gives one of his low hanging branches an affectionate squeeze and continues on, unaunafraid.
He insists on calling her child even though she has told him her name several times. Susan used to be exasperated by this but now she thinks of it as Sweetgum's nickname just for her. He doesn't call any other kids Child. He doesn't call them anything. In fact, no one besides Susan even knows about Sweetgum. When anyone else walks this path they don't see, or can't see. But Susan is different.
And that is why when her old friend tells her "Child, you should not enter these woods on your own" she just smiles at him, gives one of his low hanging branches an affectionate squeeze and continues on, unaunafraid.
