 Tree
of Life
1994, 90" by 72", oil raw silk, denim,
glass, turquoise, sequins, gold leaf, copper leaf, silver leaf on
canvas
Woven into Kashmiri carpets, inlaid into stone
tables, penned and dyed onto fabric, painted and carved and imagined
an re-imagined, as in this painting, is the much-loved old symbol
of the Tree of Life.
It is a place of refuge and of community, and an
example of something whose spreading is healthy and beneficial.
And, like a tree of life herself, a woman (my friend
Cindy Babson) also branches, her multiple heads honorific, symbolizing
her different aspects, capabilities, and possibilities.
There she is, between two other trees of life (one
from Gustav Klimt, in the west; the other from India, a design I
found on a kalamkari bedspread).
Perhaps this painting ought to be retitled, Forest
of Trees of Life.
|
