Tree Man started as a photo I took recently, then evolved into a 6×8 canvas panel. I made an ink jet print of the photo and gesso’ed it onto a canvas panel I had already painted a background on. I also used acrylics, inks and stamping to complete the piece. This piece went together really fast - a few hours saw it’s completion.

But there’s a story behind this piece (isn’t there always?).

I had painted the black and white background on the canvas panel months ago and then had no idea what to do next with it, so it just sat and waited. Then a week ago I got myself out for a camera walkabout. It was very gray and foggy that morning before the sun broke through, and I took a bunch of pictures of a foggy lake. One of them, by accident, came up turned the wrong way when I loaded it into my photo editor. I was struck by the haunting quality of that shot because it looked like a bearded man who’d sprouted tree branch wings. Hence the name “Tree Man” sprang to mind.

Then last night when I was looking through some of my art papers and unfinished works, I came across the unfinished b&w panel, and inspiration gave birth the idea of collaging the photo onto the panel. So, today I sat down without a definite plan or idea of what I wanted to do but the piece seemed to finish itself as I sat and played.

I love it when a piece comes together this way - in such a serendipitous fashion. It’s one of the things I love about making art. I find that when I sit down to create, my art has a way of creating itself - as if it were using me to channel itself. I don’t know how else to explain it. It just is.