ASH

In 2024 I visited this ash tree is in Northern Michigan, Leelanau County, on private property. The owners were kind enough to let me draw there. Drawing these trees from life is an act of communion for me.

The ash tree is “my tree.” In other words it corresponds, in the Celtic Tree Ogham to the sign of Pisces, my birth sign. It was extremely difficult to convey the girth of this tree, which is estimated at 300 years of age and has a 300 dbh, or a 300 inch diameter at breast height. The tree has a dedicated team of arborists at work on keeping it safe from the Emerald Ash Borer, which has decimated the ash population across America. These foresters are among the true tree artists.

I did the best I could with it.

My friend, the painter Ben Pritchard, who traveled with me and was kind enough to show me around Michigan, also gave it a try.

In the end, the drawing is merely a means of being present to the living substance of the great plant