Social Network
I had a difficult time deciding on a title for this new painting. Some of you might recognize the location as a Fall Creek cliff near Varna. I’ve walked past this spot many times, but the lighting on one particular day highlighted the complex root pattern in a way I knew I had to paint. Trees are now thought to communicate (“The Hidden Lives of Trees, What they feel, How They Communicate” by Peter Wohlleben) via chemicals, hormones, and electrical signals produced by fine root structures (mycorrhizal network) and associated fungi. It’s a form of social network on the “wood-wide web.” If you’d like to learn more, read the book or a shorter descriptive article in Smithsonian Magazine (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/). Of course, the active elements in this web are subterranean, but the exposed roots here are intriguing as an artistic element. I also found the drama of the scene compelling. These trees are on edge of a cliff, and some are already beginning their descent to the creek bed. The life of these trees are already beginning the final lean over the precipice, eventually to be followed by a swift tumble to the waters below. Roots are a metaphor for history and stability, but this scene illustrates that a process is already in progress which cannot be resisted indefinitely.
I’m reading The Overstory by Richard Powers. Tree communication is part of a larger story including human connections—with each other and with trees. Your painting (and the story behind it) is fascinating.
I know that spot well, it is a favorite hike. You painted it magnificently.
Quite beautiful and a great supporting story. When I was a thirteen year-old Boy Scout, pledging for the Order of the Arrow, the project we were given was to pull tree stumps out of the ground, in a large field for future farming. It wasn’t easy. Just as many roots go straight down. Farmers use dynamite, we dug deep around the stumps and used an axe to break the larger roots. But in your picture, the soil erosion might topple those trees with the weight of the tree itself ripping it loose.
Thanks for observing and painting the scene.
Magnifique!
I also know that trail well. When I lived on Turkey Hill Rd those Monkey Run trails were practically my back yard. Your painting really captures the tension of those trees living on the edge.
I would recommend two other books that are among my favorites. George Nakashima’s “The Soul of a Tree” is a wonderful book about trees from a wood worker’s perspective. The novel “Speaker for the Dead” by Orson Scott Card is a sci-fi story that includes a species of sentient trees.
Thanks Ed for sharing your beautiful work.
To ” the finest taxonomist Cornell ever had,” (–Dr. P.W.Gilbert quote), I’m looking for the painting of a sucker gliding downstream upside down about to take a dry fly. I was honored to have witnessed this seeming impossibility. “Love the one you’re with” (–Doobies).
My theory lately is that humans, dependent on bacteria, fungi, possibly viruses for our lives to continue, have been blessed with sentience by our funguses. A great deal of psilocybin backs up this view.
I’m loving catching up on your visions.
My best to you and yours.