Hidden Voices

 Trees have spirits in Japan.  They have souls. 

 We lost another tree in our garden, a big old kiri tree.  We had lived with this tree, watched it naked in the winter, full in the summer, swept up its leaves in the autumn, big broad leaves. It was a wonder. 

I kept the pieces to remember.  I stacked them carefully to dry.  Then I started to work on them.  I started digging - Was I looking for it's soul,  or was I trying to save my own?

It felt good to work on them, to make something new from the fallen tree. 

I made an inside space.  After a time, and to my surprise, I started to paint on the inside walls. 

Painting inside was new. 

 I was no longer painting in 2D. The back wall was a flat space.  The back wall was a space I was accustomed to, but next to it was another plane, and then the top, and the bottom and the other side. I found myself making a painting in 5 different directions, all connected. To do it I had to create new tools. I made brushes that painted around corners.

But more important than brushes, I had to have a new way of thinking, 5 planes interconnected, but different.  I looked at ancient cave paintings for education.

And later I turned to the mandala.  I noticed that the 5 different planes inside my wood mirrored the 5 circles that make up a mandala.

As is often the way with painting, one step informs the next. Each new step is an adventure and an education, allowing, or suggesting the next.

Work continues.  With luck I will have some things to show in October.