Inspiration, and trees

Guild bios are due tomorrow, and as a lifelong procrastinator, I've been putting it off.  (I am a member of the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild, which is one reason I'm writing this blog to explore my artistic side rather than just making necklaces while I watch TV.  They show me fun things to do, and then I want to do them. It. Is. Awesome.)   And I want to share and expand on it some of mine.

Given the question, "Tell us about your work, inspiration, and any other comments you may have:" I had a little trouble, because I find many many things to be inspiring.  Right now, not surprisingly, I find a lot of trees to be inspiring, because it is still the barest beginnings of spring.  The redbuds are starting, and the Bradfords are blooming (well, most of them; the one I moved a couple weeks ago isn't blooming but it is leafing, which gives me good hope that we didn't kill it and it didn't bloom last year either, so maybe it just needs to be more than two years old). The dogwoods haven't begun yet, and the saucer magnolias are just coming into their own.

What I'm trying to say is, I can still see the incredible structure of trees, everywhere.  Right now this is a lot of my inspiration, because what started out as a closer look so that I might be able to replicate has become a full-on almost obsession.  I can't NOT see it.  I can't not see it even when I'm supposed to be watching the road in front of me, which is difficult, because trees are everywhere and every one of them is an intimate complex amazing fractal creation of life, and rebirth, and solid persistence, and joy, and love.  They are glorious. I catch myself watching subtle shifts of color and trying to track up into the cloud of branches, and the way the light falls on some branches and not others.  I can't stop looking at them.  I don't know whether it will get less distracting once they're coming into full leaf or not, but for now, well...

I can see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower*.... but for inspiration, I dare you to outdo a tree.


*(William Blake: "To see a world in a grain of sand/And heaven in a wild flower/Hold infinity in the palms of your hand/And eternity in an hour")