{"id":1739,"date":"2015-12-30T14:24:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T18:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2019-09-17T20:12:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T01:12:39","slug":"the-tree-as-artist-and-art-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/wordpress\/explore-new-york\/the-tree-as-artist-and-art-form","title":{"rendered":"The Tree as Artist and Art Form"},"content":{"rendered":"

To Paul Klee, a tree embodied the creative process. In a public lecture, the artist likened the artist to a tree. The artist is deeply rooted in the world, while the artist\u2019s work is similar to the tree\u2019s crown, as the book Art and Phenomenology<\/em> explains<\/a>. “Standing at his appointed place, at the trunk of the tree, he does nothing other than gather and pass on what comes to him from the depths, ” Klee observed. “And the beauty at the crown is not his own. He is merely a channel.\u201d In Klee\u2019s conceptual view, the manifestation of the human body into artistic creation and the tree\u2019s shaping are intertwined.<\/p>\n

Examine a branch or trunk or crown, feel the tree\u2019s presence and qualities, and it will speak to you or move you in some way. A single tree is one of the most soulful, persistent, and expressive of nature\u2019s creations. Trees speak to us, energetically and visually, on a deep level.<\/p>\n

The human body and the body of a tree are in kinship. The About Trees Exhibition<\/a> at the Zentrum Paul Klee<\/a> museum in Bern, Switzerland, seeks to explain this connection. The roots, trunk, and crown correspond to the feet, body, and the head. We can only wonder at their strength through the seasons and weather\u2019s vagaries. On the whole, trees outlive humans, their lives spanning the generations. The glorious American elms on the Central Park Mall<\/a> looked at children playing and the Sunday strollers at the turn into the 20th century the way they do the drummers, skateboarders, and walkers today. This is not to say that trees aren\u2019t frail or vulnerable.<\/p>\n

A tree both exemplifies certain predictable laws of nature and processes, but in countless variations and individual forms. A tree can be fierce and soaring, gentle and fragile, imposing, graceful, gnarly and quirky, ancient, or tender. We can see it and project our moods upon it, or conversely draw its energy to us. Trees are imbued with meanings and symbolism, something the storytellers have known since ancient times.<\/p>\n

\"Trees<\/a>