new work under way

I'm now working on the next piece for "Chapter Two", called "With Eager Hope" (Tree Story #108) I'll post some of my progress on my "Wanderings" blog soon.



With Eager Hope

"What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)"

Romans 8:18-25

longing for the wind's embrace (tree story #139)

Just finished a new tree story, but I'm only sharing a bit of detail; I'll release all the images concurrently with the next gallery show in March.



The finished work is a black & white photo with mixed media on a 24"x36" canvas and has been given rave reviews by those close enough to me to have seen it. ;)

This is Tree Story #139, with story by Magnus Holmgren, check it out here.

chapter two coming in 2010!

"Tree Stories: Chapter Two" will be featured in a real-world gallery in March 2010, which means that this project will once again get my focused attention. Chapter Two will include some previous stories re-worked as mixed media pieces on canvas, as well as new stories and images all in mixed media. I've just begun a new piece for Tree Story #139 so stay tuned for previews...

valley roots

A very personal tree story: My mother grew up on an almond ranch in California's Central Valley, symbolized by the pear orchard image in this piece. The small photo was taken in the family's chicken yard on the ranch. Buttons represent the long line of seamstresses that I come from (I sewed my own first complete outfit at age twelve.) And the text in the lower right hand corner is part of the story of how my great grandmother's family came out to California from Kansas.

(This piece is not for sale, but I can create similar type commissioned works for your family to cherish for many years.)

memories

A little tree story - black & white photograph in mixed media collage on 12x12" canvas.

late afternoon (tree story #16)

Sitting in the shade of a big bush while the kids build their “animal shack research lab” for the wildlife they find and catch. So far they have a tiny tree frog carefully kept in a peanut butter jar, named Goldie for her color. They also have a table and the outline of walls.

Their activity has sent any other obvious wildlife into hiding. Of course, the gunshots from the back porch target shooting have a way of leaving utter silence in their wake.

As human activity quiets I can hear the faint peeps and chirps of birds some distance away, the occasional buzz of a passing insect and the far off call of what I presume is a donkey.

Wandering away from the house I happen upon three or four birds - I think they’re young wild turkeys - perfect tawny camouflage in the dry brown grasses. They slowly wander away from me but don’t seem bothered by the constant noise of child play that echoes out over the land. (The gunshots have ceased - the men like most to look at and hold the antique guns they’ve exercised.)

The sloped land is uneven with plenty of creature holes. I’m not sure I want to know who lives where. A rodent here, a rodent there and a reptile over there for sure. Where the grasses haven’t been mown for fire safety they stand two feet high, alternating with patches where weather or foot has pressed them down. I watch carefully where I put my feet for holes, poison oak and creatures. This part of the property that hasn’t been cleared of trees in an open oak forest with an occasional struggling pine. Here the oaks rule.

Everything here is dry now except for the trees and the oak seedlings. Pine seedlings look like they may not survive, at least not well. I’ve mad a perch of a large outcropping covered in dry crunchy moss. I guess it must hold the hidden potential to come alive once the rains start. Next to the outcropping is a small bushy plant that reminds me of the sage in my herb garden. Long dusty green leaves that seem impervious to drought.

(“I caught a grasshopper!” echoes down the hill amidst other excited cries...)

I better get back to the house to clear my negs - I forgot to bring along a baggie and I’d cry if they dried out and were a loss...

Judith Monroe, Wanderings journal

true love (tree story #27)

More from chapter 2: True Love is a black & white photo with mixed media on a 24x24" canvas. There are twelve palm trees, which is a symbol for Israel, also sometimes a representation of the tree of life, which gives eternal life.

Currently available, prices are temporarily lower... email me for details.

Text:

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep a score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

(1 Corinthians 13)

her self (tree story #7)

Chapter 2 in the original series - now on canvas - new works will come as well. This piece is 24x24" black & white photo and mixed media on canvas ($850). Available, in fact the varnish is still tacky...

Here's the original poem:

Her Self

I was born a tree,
or so they tell me.
I don't remember.
It was so long ago.
But there was a moment
of greeness, of stretching
upward, flexing my limbs,
uncurling my hands into
leafy sprouts. I watched them
grow, lengthen, broaden
as my body did too.

I remember the seed.
Translucent, double-winged,
borrowed from a dragon-fly,
to let the tiny pod twirl
downward to the open
earth. That's where my
coloring came from --
wood-shaded skin,
peat-brown hair, changeling
eyes flecked with day-moon
blue, mossy green, bronze
lights that sometimes look
like turquoise.

A tree? Yes. With fists full
of air, rain sliding down
my arms, shoulders,
ankles, back to the moist
earth with its startled grasses
upright in their importance.
There were birds that paused
on their journeys, nested
in the crook of my arm,
or on my palm,
sharing their long memories
with their young, with me.
I was born a tree.

Brigit Truex


You can see the original image here.

love

The last in this little series, another 8x8" mixed media collage, $95 currently at my studio in Midtown Sacramento, contact me for details.

joy

another 8x8" mixed media collage on canvas, $95 - contact for availability ;)

hope

Mixed media on 8x8" canvas - sorry, already sold. Contact me to commission something similar.

faith

Black & white photo in mixed media collage on 8x8" canvas - $95 - contact me for current availability.

love grows

During my "City of Trees" marathon I did manage to get a new piece out, using an image I called "Tree Lovers" before, it's now called "Love Grows."

city of trees #50

city of trees #49

city of trees #48

city of trees #47

city of trees #46

city of trees #45

city of trees #44

city of trees #43

city of trees #42

city of trees #41

city of trees #40

city of trees #39

city of trees #38

city of trees #37

city of trees #36

city of trees #35

city of trees #34

city of trees #33

city of trees #32

city of trees #31

city of trees #30

city of trees #29

city of trees #28

city of trees #27

city of trees #26

city of trees #25

city of trees #24

city of trees #23

city of trees #22

city of trees #21

city of trees #20

city of trees #19

city of trees #18

city of trees #17

city of trees #16

California fan palms in exotic Citrus Heights, CA

city of trees #15

probably an ash tree in front of Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento