365 Leaves

365 leaves

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During one year, I was drawing 1 leaf a day.  This project was about finding the time to connect with nature around me, no matter what else was happening in my life. Every day I found a leaf that amazes and inspires, even if it was a weed near a bus stop I wouldn’t normally honor with a second glance..it taught me to really SEE nature.

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The Tree Of Life

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. “The Tree of life” explores our philosophical connection with nature and places that evoke certain thoughts, memories and emotions. As we bond with these places, we learn to understand ourselves and our place in the world where we’re all connected, not despite our differences, but because of them. Nature can teach us the secret of transformation through uniting our inner contradictions, like fire and water coexist and complement each other.

I want to make an installation titled “ The Tree Of Life” with the 365 drawings of leaves covering walls and ceiling of a room with a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. I think of this room as a portal, allowing your mind and spirit escape the busy world around you and find yourself sitting under the tree, the same way Buddha was, trusting it to heal you.  In the middle of the room there will be a pillow inviting you to sit down and connect to the tree of life around and inside you, to relax, breathe, listen to the sounds of birds and wind rustling the leaves (link to the soundtrack is at the end of the text), and maybe even follow Buddha’s steps and get closer to the enlightenment.

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*The drawings will be for sale, with part of the profits going to The Canopy Project by Earth Day Network, where every $1 plants a tree. In just one year, a tree produces as much oxygen as 10 people inhale! Let's plant our tree of life and hope that it's magical powers will heal the Earth.

 

History

The Tree of Life is a fundamental widespread myth in many of the world's mythologies, religious and philosophical traditions. Various trees of life are recounted in folklore, culture and fiction, often relating to immortality or fertility. They had their origin in religious symbolism.

In Christianity The Tree of life appears as the source of eternal life in the Garden of Eden, from which access is revoked when man is driven from the garden.

The Bodhi tree, according to Buddhist tradition, is the pipal (Ficus) under which the Buddha sat when he attained Enlightenment.

The Quran mentions only one tree in Eden, also called the tree of immortality.

In Chinese mythology, a carving of a tree of life depicts a phoenix and a dragon; the dragon often represents immortality. A Taoist story tells of a tree that produces a peach of immortality every three thousand years, and anyone who eats the fruit receives immortality.

If you were to find The Tree of life, what do you think it would look like and what magical powers would it have? Would it be a tree experiencing all 4 seasons at the same time? Would it be a portal to unknown places? Would its branches grow so tall that the planets and stars will be hanging from them like Christmas ornaments? Would the roots embrace planet Earth and all the living things?