For this piece, entitled “ROT”, I chose to portray the destruction and decay of trees commonly overlooked on a daily basis. Within the piece itself, I decided to distort aspects of the image in relation to what would be expected, namely by shifting color schemes and distorting background elements. I chose this distortion to largely represent a skewed perspective and perception that many individuals have in regard to trees and their destruction. Often times, when individuals envision trees, they make a mental connection or association that categorizes trees as a decoration of sorts, lining the sides and paved roads, or perhaps surrounding an established city or town. Trees, however, act as much more than a simple decoration, providing us with a number of useful resources. Trees supply humans with oxygen, various types of food, and most notably, wood that is used for building and fueling fires. In spite of these wonderful gifts that trees provide us with, we overlook their widespread destruction and rapid deterioration via deforestation. Now more than ever, trees are being destroyed and cleared away in order to collect wood and make areas suitable for building. In the midst of this process, humans have undoubtedly become blind to the fact that trees carry with them such an irreplaceable value and importance. While the damage being done is not necessarily irreversible, the rate at which modern humans are clearing trees does not allow for proper regeneration and growth back into nature. If this pattern continues, the sight of trees will become a rarity in our everyday lives. Such destruction is not only irresponsible, but inconsiderate on the behalf of current and future generations.
For this piece, entitled “DEPEND”, I chose to portray a much smaller scale of symbiosis with trees we are largely unaware of and overlook daily. In this piece, I decided to photograph an image of moss growing on a tree trunk to symbolize this smaller scale of dependence. Additionally, I transformed a portion of the image by flipping it horizontally to show these organisms having a similar, but very different relationship with trees in relation to other life forms such as humans. Organisms such as moss or fungi have a special kind of symbiotic relationship with trees, benefiting from their structure while simultaneously helping an entire forest to grow and flourish. Trees, for these smaller organisms, provide a platform of sorts, allowing them to thrive and grow. In exchange, moss and fungi allow for decaying or withering trees to be decomposed over a shortened period of time, and for an entire forest to continually grow new trees and other forms of plant life at a steady rate. In a sense, this smaller scale of organism dependence is a parallel to humans, showing our reliance not only on nature, but the resources of earth as a whole. Ironically, we as humans typically overlook such smaller organisms that might grow upon a tree, due to our assumption of greater importance or superiority over such life forms. This notion is far from truth, however, as all life forms play a part in a matrix of life on earth, and are strongly interdependent on one another.
For this piece, entitled “BOND”, I chose to represent a connection I believe exists between trees that is, in many ways, beyond human perception. Within the piece itself, I decided to portray branches of a tree wrapped around one another in order to depict this bond or connection. Additionally, I distorted background elements to signify that there is something truly strange, yet unique, about such a phenomena that occurs within nature. In my eyes, I take such an occurrence to signify that trees are connected in a very special way that allows for the support and strengthening of an entirety or a whole. If taken into perspective, it would be far more difficult to clear an entire forest as opposed to a single tree, due to the fact that a forest has a number of deeply rooted connections that bring together and bind all of its respective trees. While these connections might not be immediately visible, they do indeed exist, and serve to strengthen neighboring trees, further allowing them to withstand a variety of weather conditions and dangers. In this sense, trees not only support organisms such as moss and humans, but also each other. Acting as supports for one another to grow off of, or even bind together, trees form a deeply rooted and inescapable bond with all of the natural world, whether we realize it or not.