About the Exhibit

This Exhibit features artwork curated from the Mother Tree Global Call for art – a collaborative creative project with TreeSisters International inviting women to tell the story of their love and advocacy of our global forests. Co-creating an investment in global reforestation efforts with 50% of proceeds from entry fees directed to TreeSisters Reforestation Projects.

Inviting a return to our place as the ‘Restorer Species’, collaborating with Earth in emergent, creative and regenerative ways, which reflect our respect, love, interconnection and reciprocity in action.

The Mother Tree Exhibit is inspired by MUSEA’s lineage and legacy of activism on behalf of women and girls and our precious home, the Earth. Co-Founders, Curator Shiloh Sophia and Jonathan McCloud as well as members of our Intentional Creativity Arts Guild, have been actively advocating for the health, wholeness, safety and freedom of women globally, attending the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as panelists and advocates of this work. As an organization, we recognize that the status of women is interconnected with the status of our global forests, as women and ecosystems are often experiencing the same or similar harms inside of current structures.

Through this collaboration with TreeSisters Nonprofit, women are invited to rise up in creative self expression to artfully express their desire for the healing, wholeness and regeneration of our precious global forests, which in turn is also holding a powerful space for the healing and regeneration of women! We are in this together. Intricately interwoven.

The Meaning of “Mother Tree”

The concept of ‘Mother Tree’ is an ancient Indigenous knowledge that has existed for millennia. It has recently become popularized through the scientific research of biologist Dr. Suzanne Simard who discovered that forests have hub or ‘Mother Trees’, which are large, highly connected trees that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest.  These Mother Trees are symbiotic with intelligent and intricate mycorrhizal networks that support the tree in communicating, sending warnings, and supportive chemical compounds to other trees, specifically their young. These complex relationships contribute to forest resiliency, adaptability and recovery and have far-reaching implications for how to manage and heal forests from human impacts, including climate change.

This concept of the Mother Tree nurturing her young, has an expansive connection to our global forests nurturing life on our planet, providing us air to breathe, offering nutrients to the oceans, regulating weather systems and the hydrological cycle, providing home and shelter to humans and other-than-human beings, and cooling temperatures on land.

The wellness of the trees and the forest ecosystems connects to our wellness. We must stand for the restoration and regeneration of our global forests, visioning and working together to ensure they will continue to thrive for 7 generations ahead and beyond. 

This concept of the mother tree also represents our connection to our matriarchal ancestors – those who are there to support us, send us messages, share their wisdom, and provide us with guidance on our life’s journey. Therefore, there is an invitation threaded into this art call theme for women to connect with matriarchal ancestral support and their own ancient root systems. This is reflected in MUSEA’s Matriarchal Lineage of activism catalyzed through creativity and the many ways Intentional Creativity both inspires and bolsters women to participate in the holding actions for women and our global forests that are so vital at this time – often including this directly in our canvases.

About the Exhibit

This Exhibit features artwork curated from the Mother Tree Global Call for art – a collaborative creative project with TreeSisters International inviting women to tell the story of their love and advocacy of our global forests. Co-creating an investment in global reforestation efforts with 50% of proceeds from entry fees directed to TreeSisters Reforestation Projects.

Inviting a return to our place as the ‘Restorer Species’, collaborating with Earth in emergent, creative and regenerative ways, which reflect our respect, love, interconnection and reciprocity in action.

The Mother Tree Exhibit is inspired by MUSEA’s lineage and legacy of activism on behalf of women and girls and our precious home, the Earth. Co-Founders, Curator Shiloh Sophia and Jonathan McCloud as well as members of our Intentional Creativity Arts Guild, have been actively advocating for the health, wholeness, safety and freedom of women globally, attending the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as panelists and advocates of this work. As an organization, we recognize that the status of women is interconnected with the status of our global forests, as women and ecosystems are often experiencing the same or similar harms inside of current structures.

Through this collaboration with TreeSisters Nonprofit, women are invited to rise up in creative self expression to artfully express their desire for the healing, wholeness and regeneration of our precious global forests, which in turn is also holding a powerful space for the healing and regeneration of women! We are in this together. Intricately interwoven.

The Meaning of “Mother Tree”

The concept of ‘Mother Tree’ is an ancient Indigenous knowledge that has existed for millennia. It has recently become popularized through the scientific research of biologist Dr. Suzanne Simard who discovered that forests have hub or ‘Mother Trees’, which are large, highly connected trees that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest.  These Mother Trees are symbiotic with intelligent and intricate mycorrhizal networks that support the tree in communicating, sending warnings, and supportive chemical compounds to other trees, specifically their young. These complex relationships contribute to forest resiliency, adaptability and recovery and have far-reaching implications for how to manage and heal forests from human impacts, including climate change.

This concept of the Mother Tree nurturing her young, has an expansive connection to our global forests nurturing life on our planet, providing us air to breathe, offering nutrients to the oceans, regulating weather systems and the hydrological cycle, providing home and shelter to humans and other-than-human beings, and cooling temperatures on land.

The wellness of the trees and the forest ecosystems connects to our wellness. We must stand for the restoration and regeneration of our global forests, visioning and working together to ensure they will continue to thrive for 7 generations ahead and beyond. 

This concept of the mother tree also represents our connection to our matriarchal ancestors – those who are there to support us, send us messages, share their wisdom, and provide us with guidance on our life’s journey. Therefore, there is an invitation threaded into this art call theme for women to connect with matriarchal ancestral support and their own ancient root systems. This is reflected in MUSEA’s Matriarchal Lineage of activism catalyzed through creativity and the many ways Intentional Creativity both inspires and bolsters women to participate in the holding actions for women and our global forests that are so vital at this time – often including this directly in our canvases.

Exhibit Media

Presentation

Museum Show

TreeSisters Presentation

Exhibit Media

Presentation

TreeSisters Presentation

Museum Show

Gallery

We invite you to explore the images and stories that weave the heart of the Mother Tree Exhibit. These images are organized in five creative categories, which you can access by clicking on the navigation  links below. May you enjoy this slow and intentional wander through the forest path…

Inspirational

Symbolic

Mysterious

Magic in the Woods

Narrative

Inspirational

“Inspiring restoration. We envision a world in which it is normal for everyone to protect and restore themselves and their world.”

~ TreeSisters International

Loading the next set of gallery items...
Load More

She is a Mother Tree

Patty Iammatteo

Acrylic on Canvas

Restorative Justice Singing Tree

Laurie Marshall
Acrylic on luan plywood with colored pencil on paper glued with acrylic gloss medium.
8′ x 16′. Co-created with 12 youth volunteers over 11-months in a Leadership Training, Peace Building Through Art program.

Story

The Mother Tree supports the life around her. Oakland, CA’s commitment to be a Restorative Justice City is how the Mother Tree functions. Not punishment, but compassionate healing. This is Oakland, CA’s logo – the Oak Tree. The process of creating the painting wasn’t a lone person working in isolation. The painting was created in community. The Mother Tree sustains community. Youth led this co-creation. The Mother Tree treasures the young. The youth were from El Salvador, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, China, Mexico. The Mother Tree nurtures diversity. Africa is honored as the birthplace of human life. The Sankofa bird faces the future and looks back to the past for wisdom. The Mother Tree supports the winged ones. The leaves tell stories of harm repaired and healed. The birds tell stories of dreams for a positive future. The Beloved Community is celebrated, each human portrayed in their unique beauty. The Mother Tree is complex, diverse, mysterious and filled with love and possibility.

Story

This forest
A library of green
I lean on a tree
That speaks in water droplets
From the top
Good morning air
Handshaking my lungs
Renewing my blood
I am sustained.
Underneath me roots
Holding this all together.
The earth.
Holding this.
All together.
The Earth.

From Her

Amber Samaya Gould
Acrylic on Canvas

Dryad

Patricia Trautman
Oil on Board

Story

She is the nymph of nature spirit who live in trees.
I feel connected to the tree depicted in this painting as it is located five minutes away from my home.
She resides in Hampstead Heath.
As I sit on her, I melt into her roots and we both become one,
I see her patterns, her sovereignty, her calmness.
We share our stories and exchange energies.
She brings balance and healing to my life.
– Patricia Trautman

Semillas de Vida

Iréne de Brice
Mixed media, ink on paper.

Story

My art is my prayer, meditation, bridge to the Great Mystery, and some pieces function as gentle art activism. This illustration is Part II of artwork done for Life as Ceremony Biannual Journal for their first Spanish Edition. It features indigenous Costa Rican HUEmxns tending to and communing with the Mesoamerican rainforest that I carry in my heart. I was born and raised in unceded Huetar land in San José, Costa Rica. This country excels in biodiversity conservation efforts but has failed its indigenous peoples with neglect, little health assistance, low education, and continued illegal deforestation and occupation of their lands. Eight indigenous ethnic groups exist in Costa Rica: Huetar, Maleku, Bribri, Cabécar, Brunka, Ngäbe, Bröran, and Chorotega. My DNA speaks of an untold story that is lost in time and can’t be traced back to its origins, a story that I only heard fragments of through my maternal grandfather. Since childhood, I have illustrated indigenous women to reconnect with my forgotten ancestry, unknown but very present and much alive in my being. This piece honors indigenous cosmovisions in the Americas and reminds me of the intricate connection and fractal Nature of life—Nature and its trees are our Mother and give us life like women give life to HUEmxn existence.

Rooted

Marjolein Roeleveld
Photograph (art cooperation Karen Zuo and Marjolein Roeleveld)

Story

I’m an artist (theatre- and image maker). I’m fascinated by the aging body, the body in movement, time. Like a woman in change, growing a little being in her belly. Or like an old man trying to cross the street within the time of the green light. Wanting to walk fast (head), but the body only lets him go in a certain pace. You see the struggle. I find that beautiful.

Last year December I graduated from the ZenShiatsu School in Amsterdam as a Shiatsu therapist. Learning about the body in a energetic and spiritual level enriched me. I wrote my thesis on feminine strength and the deepest yin. I interviewed 8 women in eastern medicine asking them what feminine strength is for them and in each encounter I experienced beauty, a common knowledge, a soft power (yin) instead of a constant action (yang) that I connect more to men, and a deep connection to Mother earth. Like the roots of trees and the mother tree. The interviews made me smile and grow. During that period I got in contact with Treesisters starting by seeing a short movie by Clare Dubois who represents feminine strength for me. Learning more about trees, the ancient knowledge, mother earth and the land feeds me.

In Chinese philosophy the water element represents the Jing (life force) and the will, that what you are supposed to, the deepest yin. Writing my thesis I followed a river, flexible, flowing, not forcing anything, but strong at the same time. Turning stones into sand. Not knowing where to go, but knowing that it’s right. Letting go of the goal and trusting what comes will come, because of the connection to the Jing.

Often I don’t exactly know why I make the images I make. It’s a gut feeling, a womb feeling you might say in this case. Not a knowing from the head, but the body. This picture represents the subject of my thesis and is only the first steps of many following that river. I had to climb that tree. Since my childhood I have always remembered to climb trees.

www.marjoleinroeleveld.com

The Healing Tree

Melissa Lawson
Acrylics, crumpled paper, oil pastels

Story

The Healing Tree

Gasping for breath
the screaming, the hitting
Gripping her tiny body
Terrorizing her once open heart

She became silent

No one ever heard her cries
Or knew her longings
No one saw beneath her façade
of incomplete smiles
She became invisible
Even to herself

In desperation

She ran into the forbidden valley of trees
Might there be safety in the unknown forests?
Might she find someone who would listen?

Help me, she begged

Help me gather together
all the lost pieces of myself
Awaken my vaulted heart, she prayed
Unclench my voice, she murmured

Cautiously

She wandered further into the forestland
She heard the sweet songs of the sparrows
She saw wildflowers budding, streams sparkling
Trees dancing in the breeze

Perceiving

soundless messages
The forest trees seemed to be
encircling her empty spirit
As if holding a sphere of safety around her
Gently coaxing her to come out of hiding

The trees whispered

You are safe now, dear one
We hear your cries
We know your anguish
It was then that the Mother Tree spoke,

We will listen.

*******
This painting symbolizes the journey of healing with my mother. The domineering tree represents my mother. When my mother transitioned, I was given a huge stack of letters she had written. I scoured them for anything kind she had written about me. If you look closely you’ll notice the raised texture of the leaves on my healing tree. They hold the crumpled pieces of paper of my mother’s kind words.

Roots to Wings

Phyllis Taylor
Acrylic paint on canvas

Story

If I could give you many things, I’d give you gold and silver rings. Or knowledge that I’ve gained with years.

The gift of smiling through the tears,

Confidence, courage, determination, laughter and spirit and love of creation, wrapped up in a box with a bow,

I’d give to you these gifts to keep for as long as you live.

If I could give you just two things, One would be Roots, the other, Wings.

Roots, not to tie you to the ground, but to guide you to where your fulfillment is found.

The nourishing start, the firm foundation, the source of your inner determination.

Wings to soar over obstacles, wings to fly free,

Wings to glide to the heights of the best you can be.

And when obstacles loom, from your Roots grows a hand providing a strong, sturdy, safe place to land.

I’d choose these two things for the gifts that are best, for with Roots and with Wings, you’ll find all the rest!

– Author Unknown

Story

Papatuanuku is often portrayed as the First Mother energy, she holds the creativity and reproductive powers in her hands. This is a self directed painting based on the teachings of Intentional Creativity, honouring Papatuanuku from my own world view as a Maori woman. A genealogy approach to understand and make sense of the world often lays in creation stories; looking back at the past, to make sense of the present and to plan for the future. Papatuanuku, First Mother, gave rise to many energies, one being Tane Mahuta, god of forests and trees, usually considered male, however stories also tell us these creative energies can often embody both male and female in mutual interactions to achieve balance and harmony (Forster 2019)

Papatuanuku = Creatrix Goddess

Moana Whatu
Acrylic on Canvas

Mother Tree Mycelium Medicine Pouch Medallion

Gaileen Flaman
Contemporary Métis beading, full grain leather purse

Story

Having Plains Cree heritage, I was inspired to try my hand at traditional beading and attended a few virtual workshops, and soon found my way to develop my own style. Using an image I found online, I beaded this medallion with the Mother Tree in mind. I had previously attended a webinar interview with Dr. Suzanne Simard, and a tutorial to create a drawing of the Mother Tree, and I wanted to see if I could create a beaded tree medallion with a vast network of mycelium supporting it.

I created this medallion to celebrate the birthday of my “cuzzin” who is my Métis mother’s sister’s daughter, and a sister champion in uncovering our indigeneity. She was thrilled to receive this gift and knew exactly what to do with it – she attached it to a plain, industry-manufactured, full grain leather purse and made it into her medicine pouch, to hold her sacred herbs when she goes to pow-wows and other ceremonies. “…a tree with spirally branches and a mass of mycelium just below the surface, symbolic of a sturdy and prolific supporting structure that feeds the exposed parts to evolve into a beautiful, sparkling canopy sharing its freshness and life and breath freely to everything surrounding it.” With gratitude, I acknowledge my ancestors who created beauty through beading, my teachers who shared their knowledge and instruction, and my TreeSisters who inspire my continued creativity.

Story

Feeling such gratitude for my mother prompted me to begin drawing this piece, a tribute to her. I didn’t even realize the leaves were forming the shape of a heart until I stepped back and looked at the work in progress. I’m so fortunate to have a mother whose wisdom and love are readily available to me. This piece represents the intense and unconditional love a mother so often exemplifies. Whether you are a daughter, a mother of a human child, a mother of a fur baby, or mother figure to your friends, nieces, nephews, etc., this piece pays tribute to that love.

Words of love are imbedded within and these words for my mom: “When I was small, she was my safety place, home base, she knew my secrets and kept them safe. Once I was grown, I could see she was as vulnerable, and imperfect just like me.”

My Mother’s Eyes

Lisa Loudin
Pen & Ink 18″ x 24″ using a .005 micron pen

The Healing Touch of Trees

Carol Fairbanks
Acrylic paint

Story

The Healing Touch of Trees

Out of the swirling vortex of creation the soul of the tree magically emerges,
Resplendent in radiant beauty and offering wisdom to a world in need.
As Mother Tree dances in ceremony with her branches opening to the cosmos,
An array of stars rise up like a pure white snowy owl celebrating its life through flight.
This benevolent spirit of the tree generously offers to lift us up with her insight,
Showing how to transform even a barren wasteland into a lush oasis of vitality.
Trees teach us how to be flexible without breaking, as the North wind blows cold,
Threatening to disrupt the natural order of things with scarcity and fear.
Yet we can breathe the pure air exhaled by trees, whose leaves are made of sunlight,
And remember that our roots, like those of a tree, are grounded in the rich soil of Earth.
Trees provide us an intimate connection to our source of stability and goodness
So that we, too, can learn to stand up tall and proud, like a tree reaching for the Light.
We can feel a partnership with this sublime expression of that natural law we call a tree
While witnessing the forests as they create the miracles sustaining the network of life.
These verdant cathedrals offer sacred places for us to play and pray in
And are the way-showers of a knowledge that continues to mystify the mystics.
So, when you plant and care for a tree, know you are planting and nurturing hope….
For yourself and for all living things with whom we share our precious planet.

~ Carol Fairbanks

As Above So Below

Karen Elizabeth Balon
Oil on Canvas with palette knife. This painting is 3 feet wide by 10 feet tall.

Story

As Above – So Below took me 3 years to gestate and birth! What I came to realize over that time is, I haven’t just been birthing a painting of a Tree Goddess. She has birthed me into a Sovereign being. Every step of the way there has been medicine, healing transformation. Messages from Gaia through me onto the canvas and out into the world of interconnectedness with ALL. Connecting with the roots & rhythm of mama earth’s heart beat with our own hearts & all the way up through the branches to the cosmos. And So It Is.

Voice of the Trees Mini Exhibit

Voice of the Trees

Robyn Fell

Video montage of tree photographs and tree paintings inspired by them

Story

I have spent the last many, many months working with the trees that live alongside the river where I live (the Tees in the north east of the uk). I have painted the portraits of the 47 that wished to speak to me and listened to the wisdom that they whispered in my ear. Together, I feel we have created a sacred body of work.
Here is a video I have made telling the story of this most sacred of sacred journeys.

Inspirational

“Inspiring restoration. We envision a world in which it is normal for everyone to protect and restore themselves and their world.”

~ TreeSisters International

Loading the next set of gallery items...
Load More

She is a Mother Tree

Patty Iammatteo

Acrylic on Canvas

Restorative Justice Singing Tree

Laurie Marshall
Acrylic on luan plywood with colored pencil on paper glued with acrylic gloss medium.
8′ x 16′. Co-created with 12 youth volunteers over 11-months in a Leadership Training, Peace Building Through Art program.

Story

The Mother Tree supports the life around her. Oakland, CA’s commitment to be a Restorative Justice City is how the Mother Tree functions. Not punishment, but compassionate healing. This is Oakland, CA’s logo – the Oak Tree. The process of creating the painting wasn’t a lone person working in isolation. The painting was created in community. The Mother Tree sustains community. Youth led this co-creation. The Mother Tree treasures the young. The youth were from El Salvador, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, China, Mexico. The Mother Tree nurtures diversity. Africa is honored as the birthplace of human life. The Sankofa bird faces the future and looks back to the past for wisdom. The Mother Tree supports the winged ones. The leaves tell stories of harm repaired and healed. The birds tell stories of dreams for a positive future. The Beloved Community is celebrated, each human portrayed in their unique beauty. The Mother Tree is complex, diverse, mysterious and filled with love and possibility.

From Her

Amber Samaya Gould
Acrylic on Canvas

Story

This forest
A library of green
I lean on a tree
That speaks in water droplets
From the top
Good morning air
Handshaking my lungs
Renewing my blood
I am sustained.
Underneath me roots
Holding this all together.
The earth.
Holding this.
All together.
The Earth.

Dryad

Patricia Trautman
Oil on Board

Story

She is the nymph of nature spirit who live in trees.
I feel connected to the tree depicted in this painting as it is located five minutes away from my home.
She resides in Hampstead Heath.
As I sit on her, I melt into her roots and we both become one,
I see her patterns, her sovereignty, her calmness.
We share our stories and exchange energies.
She brings balance and healing to my life.
– Patricia Trautman

Semillas de Vida

Iréne de Brice
Mixed media, ink on paper.

Story

My art is my prayer, meditation, bridge to the Great Mystery, and some pieces function as gentle art activism. This illustration is Part II of artwork done for Life as Ceremony Biannual Journal for their first Spanish Edition. It features indigenous Costa Rican HUEmxns tending to and communing with the Mesoamerican rainforest that I carry in my heart. I was born and raised in unceded Huetar land in San José, Costa Rica. This country excels in biodiversity conservation efforts but has failed its indigenous peoples with neglect, little health assistance, low education, and continued illegal deforestation and occupation of their lands. Eight indigenous ethnic groups exist in Costa Rica: Huetar, Maleku, Bribri, Cabécar, Brunka, Ngäbe, Bröran, and Chorotega. My DNA speaks of an untold story that is lost in time and can’t be traced back to its origins, a story that I only heard fragments of through my maternal grandfather. Since childhood, I have illustrated indigenous women to reconnect with my forgotten ancestry, unknown but very present and much alive in my being. This piece honors indigenous cosmovisions in the Americas and reminds me of the intricate connection and fractal Nature of life—Nature and its trees are our Mother and give us life like women give life to HUEmxn existence.

Rooted

Marjolein Roeleveld
Photograph (art cooperation Karen Zuo and Marjolein Roeleveld)

Story

I’m an artist (theatre- and image maker). I’m fascinated by the aging body, the body in movement, time. Like a woman in change, growing a little being in her belly. Or like an old man trying to cross the street within the time of the green light. Wanting to walk fast (head), but the body only lets him go in a certain pace. You see the struggle. I find that beautiful.

Last year December I graduated from the ZenShiatsu School in Amsterdam as a Shiatsu therapist. Learning about the body in a energetic and spiritual level enriched me. I wrote my thesis on feminine strength and the deepest yin. I interviewed 8 women in eastern medicine asking them what feminine strength is for them and in each encounter I experienced beauty, a common knowledge, a soft power (yin) instead of a constant action (yang) that I connect more to men, and a deep connection to Mother earth. Like the roots of trees and the mother tree. The interviews made me smile and grow. During that period I got in contact with Treesisters starting by seeing a short movie by Clare Dubois who represents feminine strength for me. Learning more about trees, the ancient knowledge, mother earth and the land feeds me.

In Chinese philosophy the water element represents the Jing (life force) and the will, that what you are supposed to, the deepest yin. Writing my thesis I followed a river, flexible, flowing, not forcing anything, but strong at the same time. Turning stones into sand. Not knowing where to go, but knowing that it’s right. Letting go of the goal and trusting what comes will come, because of the connection to the Jing.

Often I don’t exactly know why I make the images I make. It’s a gut feeling, a womb feeling you might say in this case. Not a knowing from the head, but the body. This picture represents the subject of my thesis and is only the first steps of many following that river. I had to climb that tree. Since my childhood I have always remembered to climb trees.

www.marjoleinroeleveld.com

The Healing Tree

Melissa Lawson
Acrylics, crumpled paper, oil pastels

Story

The Healing Tree

Gasping for breath
the screaming, the hitting
Gripping her tiny body
Terrorizing her once open heart

She became silent

No one ever heard her cries
Or knew her longings
No one saw beneath her façade
of incomplete smiles
She became invisible
Even to herself

In desperation

She ran into the forbidden valley of trees
Might there be safety in the unknown forests?
Might she find someone who would listen?

Help me, she begged

Help me gather together
all the lost pieces of myself
Awaken my vaulted heart, she prayed
Unclench my voice, she murmured

Cautiously

She wandered further into the forestland
She heard the sweet songs of the sparrows
She saw wildflowers budding, streams sparkling
Trees dancing in the breeze

Perceiving

soundless messages
The forest trees seemed to be
encircling her empty spirit
As if holding a sphere of safety around her
Gently coaxing her to come out of hiding

The trees whispered

You are safe now, dear one
We hear your cries
We know your anguish
It was then that the Mother Tree spoke,

We will listen.

*******
This painting symbolizes the journey of healing with my mother. The domineering tree represents my mother. When my mother transitioned, I was given a huge stack of letters she had written. I scoured them for anything kind she had written about me. If you look closely you’ll notice the raised texture of the leaves on my healing tree. They hold the crumpled pieces of paper of my mother’s kind words.

Roots to Wings

Phyllis Taylor
Acrylic paint on canvas

Story

If I could give you many things, I’d give you gold and silver rings. Or knowledge that I’ve gained with years.

The gift of smiling through the tears,

Confidence, courage, determination, laughter and spirit and love of creation, wrapped up in a box with a bow,

I’d give to you these gifts to keep for as long as you live.

If I could give you just two things, One would be Roots, the other, Wings.

Roots, not to tie you to the ground, but to guide you to where your fulfillment is found.

The nourishing start, the firm foundation, the source of your inner determination.

Wings to soar over obstacles, wings to fly free,

Wings to glide to the heights of the best you can be.

And when obstacles loom, from your Roots grows a hand providing a strong, sturdy, safe place to land.

I’d choose these two things for the gifts that are best, for with Roots and with Wings, you’ll find all the rest!

– Author Unknown

Papatuanuku = Creatrix Goddess

Moana Whatu
Acrylic on Canvas

Story

Papatuanuku is often portrayed as the First Mother energy, she holds the creativity and reproductive powers in her hands. This is a self directed painting based on the teachings of Intentional Creativity, honouring Papatuanuku from my own world view as a Maori woman. A genealogy approach to understand and make sense of the world often lays in creation stories; looking back at the past, to make sense of the present and to plan for the future. Papatuanuku, First Mother, gave rise to many energies, one being Tane Mahuta, god of forests and trees, usually considered male, however stories also tell us these creative energies can often embody both male and female in mutual interactions to achieve balance and harmony (Forster 2019)

Mother Tree Mycelium Medicine Pouch Medallion

Gaileen Flaman
Contemporary Métis beading, full grain leather purse

Story

Having Plains Cree heritage, I was inspired to try my hand at traditional beading and attended a few virtual workshops, and soon found my way to develop my own style. Using an image I found online, I beaded this medallion with the Mother Tree in mind. I had previously attended a webinar interview with Dr. Suzanne Simard, and a tutorial to create a drawing of the Mother Tree, and I wanted to see if I could create a beaded tree medallion with a vast network of mycelium supporting it.

I created this medallion to celebrate the birthday of my “cuzzin” who is my Métis mother’s sister’s daughter, and a sister champion in uncovering our indigeneity. She was thrilled to receive this gift and knew exactly what to do with it – she attached it to a plain, industry-manufactured, full grain leather purse and made it into her medicine pouch, to hold her sacred herbs when she goes to pow-wows and other ceremonies. “…a tree with spirally branches and a mass of mycelium just below the surface, symbolic of a sturdy and prolific supporting structure that feeds the exposed parts to evolve into a beautiful, sparkling canopy sharing its freshness and life and breath freely to everything surrounding it.” With gratitude, I acknowledge my ancestors who created beauty through beading, my teachers who shared their knowledge and instruction, and my TreeSisters who inspire my continued creativity.

My Mother’s Eyes

Lisa Loudin
Pen & Ink 18″ x 24″ using a .005 micron pen

Story

Feeling such gratitude for my mother prompted me to begin drawing this piece, a tribute to her. I didn’t even realize the leaves were forming the shape of a heart until I stepped back and looked at the work in progress. I’m so fortunate to have a mother whose wisdom and love are readily available to me. This piece represents the intense and unconditional love a mother so often exemplifies. Whether you are a daughter, a mother of a human child, a mother of a fur baby, or mother figure to your friends, nieces, nephews, etc., this piece pays tribute to that love.

Words of love are imbedded within and these words for my mom: “When I was small, she was my safety place, home base, she knew my secrets and kept them safe. Once I was grown, I could see she was as vulnerable, and imperfect just like me.”

The Healing Touch of Trees

Carol Fairbanks
Acrylic paint

Story

The Healing Touch of Trees

Out of the swirling vortex of creation the soul of the tree magically emerges,
Resplendent in radiant beauty and offering wisdom to a world in need.
As Mother Tree dances in ceremony with her branches opening to the cosmos,
An array of stars rise up like a pure white snowy owl celebrating its life through flight.
This benevolent spirit of the tree generously offers to lift us up with her insight,
Showing how to transform even a barren wasteland into a lush oasis of vitality.
Trees teach us how to be flexible without breaking, as the North wind blows cold,
Threatening to disrupt the natural order of things with scarcity and fear.
Yet we can breathe the pure air exhaled by trees, whose leaves are made of sunlight,
And remember that our roots, like those of a tree, are grounded in the rich soil of Earth.
Trees provide us an intimate connection to our source of stability and goodness
So that we, too, can learn to stand up tall and proud, like a tree reaching for the Light.
We can feel a partnership with this sublime expression of that natural law we call a tree
While witnessing the forests as they create the miracles sustaining the network of life.
These verdant cathedrals offer sacred places for us to play and pray in
And are the way-showers of a knowledge that continues to mystify the mystics.
So, when you plant and care for a tree, know you are planting and nurturing hope….
For yourself and for all living things with whom we share our precious planet.

~ Carol Fairbanks

As Above So Below

Karen Elizabeth Balon
Oil on Canvas with palette knife. This painting is 3 feet wide by 10 feet tall.

Story

As Above – So Below took me 3 years to gestate and birth! What I came to realize over that time is, I haven’t just been birthing a painting of a Tree Goddess. She has birthed me into a Sovereign being. Every step of the way there has been medicine, healing transformation. Messages from Gaia through me onto the canvas and out into the world of interconnectedness with ALL. Connecting with the roots & rhythm of mama earth’s heart beat with our own hearts & all the way up through the branches to the cosmos. And So It Is.

Voice of the Trees Mini Exhibit

Voice of the Trees

Robyn Fell

Video montage of tree photographs and tree paintings inspired by them

Story

I have spent the last many, many months working with the trees that live alongside the river where I live (the Tees in the north east of the uk). I have painted the portraits of the 47 that wished to speak to me and listened to the wisdom that they whispered in my ear. Together, I feel we have created a sacred body of work.
Here is a video I have made telling the story of this most sacred of sacred journeys.

Symbolic

“One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”

~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

Loading the next set of gallery items...
Load More

Nurture Nature

Jessica Clark

Oil on Canvas

Story

This painting invites humanity to honor the cycles of the earth and embody the aspects of divine feminine, unconditional love, nurturing, compassion, tenderness, and intuition in order to shift global consciousness towards heart-centered, empowered action where we care for each other and heal Mother Earth. I believe when we “Nurture Nature” we simultaneously nurture ourselves, as connecting with nature is healing for the human spirit. The symbols I’ve chosen to include have meaning across multiple religions and spiritual beliefs because caring for the earth will require participation from all peoples as we are all part of Nature, not separate from it. Balancing the masculine aspects of inner strength and courage (Bear & upward pointing triangle) with aspects of divine feminine (Mother Mary & downward pointing triangle) will bring forward healthy empowerment. The elements (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), cycles (moon), and seasons (Tree of Life) of Earth (Turtle) offer wisdom to the observer. Source-Spirit-God-Creator (Raven) is always present and on our side. It is time to honor our sacred relationship with the Earth.

Ancestral Tree Mother

Pegi Eyers
Acrylic, cut paper, mixed media and digital applications, with an ink border.

Story

The essence of the green world is unconditional love, and since time began the forests have supported the flourishing of life on our beautiful planet. All trees are sentient and sacred, and represent the nurturing power of the divine feminine by freely offering oxygen, food, medicine, nutrients, shade, beauty, healing aerosols and well-being to Earth Community. The Great Mother Trees can live for hundreds or even thousands of years, rooted in a mycelium network that nourishes the life cycles of all species. Spending time in nature with these magnificent beings evokes a journey of ancestral mind, and we remember when our ancient Clan Mothers lived in deep mutual relationship with the Great Mother Trees, blessed with magic, renewal and rebirth. My mixed-media artwork ‘Ancestral Tree Mother’ celebrates our animist connections to the land, and represents the green goddess or ‘natural’ archetype as the irreducible principle that all things rise again in perennial growth. I am inspired by the matriarchies of Old Europe, and using an ink border reminiscent of an ancient Goddess-revering culture, I have created my mother tree with acrylic, cut paper, mixed media and digital applications.

As our ancient Clan Mothers considered the forest to be the foundation of their lives, may we reclaim the same worldview today. The unfailing themes of abundant life and green growth on Earth continue to manifest, even as we move into an unpredictable future. Weaving themes of nature, and the wisdom of the past into our creative practice will plant seeds for the future, and evoke our own sacredness in relationship to Gaia. By combining nature spirituality with our sisterhood circles, may we continue to work toward the protection and planting of trees. When women are fully immersed in the forest, miracles will happen! View more of my work at www.lyssanda-designs.com

Cosmic Tree of Life

Lainie Love Dalby
Shamanic Healing Art mixed media collage with textured paper, cut photographs, stickers, peacock feather, fabric & crystals

Story

This is card 37 from The Sacred (R)evolution® Multimedia Oracle Deck by Lainie Love Dalby.

Channeled Message:
I am the one who is growing a new body each day in cellular regeneration and ecstatic light. I am the one who is reaching deep down into Mama Gaia and far up into the heavens and the cosmic rays of holographic multidimensional light. I exist on all planes simultaneously. I am a deep symbol of LIFE: sustaining life, giving life, generating life. I bring the bounty of heaven down to Earth through the sturdiness of my trunk, like a spinal column of sacred energy pulsing through the universe. I channel light as a backbone between heaven and Earth and out through my branches into the worlds. The healing I offer is subtle and alchemical. It is everlasting. It is ancient and all-knowing. I am the tree of Gnosis. I am all that is. I am you. You are me. Together, we stand tall as a forest of beings, connected through heart energy in a vast ‘we’ field. The mycelial web and our root systems connect us intimately below the earth as our hearts connect us above. We are weaving this holographic light into the tapestry of life and all we do. As I breathe in carbon dioxide, you receive oxygen on the out breath. And in this lemniscate we dance, giving life to one another, sustaining each other. I am you and you are me. We are inseparable. We need each other to thrive.

Divinatory Meaning:
***Plant a tree and honor our interwoven destiny
***Extend your light, love, and nourishment to all those who need them most, like branches of a tree
***Stand tall and strong in your knowing, in your connection to the Earth, in your synergy with the trees
***Send your roots down into the Earth and up into the Heavens
***Activate your Egyptian Light Body for the next level of your grounded expansion

Mother Earth – Earth Mother

Pamela Llano
Digital (my nature photography collaged into a mosaic of shapes made from photos of my own shadows)

Story

I created this piece when my teenagers were spreading their wings on the way to flying. As they were learning to steer 3000 pounds of steel at high speeds, traveling without me, studying abroad and bonus kids had been welcomed into the flock, my heart and mind felt pulled in so many directions- like an overly caffeinated juggler trying not to drop anything ~ because everything meant the world. Nature was always my consistent grounding force. Long walks in the woods, or spotting dandelions breaking through a crack in the street. She never ceases to amaze me.

I remembered a time when my children were little, a very young friend asked me to draw “the perfect mama.” When I asked what she needed, the children circled up and debated on whether she needed 3 breasts to nurse more or eyes all over her head to catch mischief. The thing everyone agreed on was that she should have many, many arms because mama’s always carried a lot. The carrying and the pull were different in my latter stage, but felt stronger perhaps than ever. Stakes felt so much higher, so much less in my control. That memory and those feelings inspired this piece.

I began with taking pictures of my own shadows with arms dancing, layering and filling them. My phone full of nature photos provided plenty of material- my attempts at capturing and remembering some of the wow I see as I walk through the world. There truly is beauty everywhere, if you look. Choosing and blending the images into the final piece, I grounded into the thought that if Mother Nature can carry so many things so well, maybe she also equipped me to carry my load? One thing I know for sure, is that time with her always helps.

 Shekinah’s Glory

Caron McCloud
Acrylic on Canvas

Story

Momma Tree and the Forest Divine:
S/He Who Weaves Creator’s Creation
by Deborah J Milton

No single thread weaves the world.
A multiplicity is required
to sew life’s fabric.
Patterns unfold, refold –
in and out and upside down –
Birth-death, birthing, dying,
an endless flow of transforming and dissolving
beginning with mystery
our ending uncertain…

For more than a million years we humans
wove our threads beside all the others,
in among the trees,
our feast, our home, our celebration.
Suddenly,
at least to evolution’s eye,
we two-leggeds in a mere blink,
began to act as if
we
were
the very loom
itself,
forgetting our true nature
as but one life thread,
flourishing among the trees,
returning love to ground.

Momma Tree and the Forest Divine

Deborah J. Milton
Acrylic painting ( 30″ x 48″) with metal leaf

Story

Message from the Great Mother:
Here I am. With you I stand.
Open your heart and take my hand.
Find your ease and let it flow.
The less you think the more you’ll know.
The veil between us is very thin.
This new connection means our work can begin.

(This piece was created using a Soul Print process. The initial imprint came from pressing wet newspaper, charcoal, and black chalk on watercolor paper. The final image was then pulled out and defined in more detail using charcoal pencils).

The Great Mother

Stacey Maney
Charcoal and pencil

Story

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
“Trees give peace to the souls of humans.”
“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.”
“To be without trees would, in the most literal way, to be without our roots.”

This painting of a tree is an abstract form of a Tree as a life source – trees are the source of energy for Earth as well as humans.

Tree of Life

Kirti Sinha
Acrylic on canvas

Story

Sharing DNA
Sisters of the heart and soul
A joyful knowing

In My DNA

Glenda Goodrich
Mixed media: Collaged paper, acrylic paint

The Dance of Life

Marion Maenner
Acrylics mixed media with polymer clay, shells, pebbles, thrift wood and vintage jewelry on canvas 36″x36″

Story

To exist is to change,
to change is to mature,
to mature is to go on
creating oneself endlessly.

Quote: Henry Bregson
Artwork : SpiralsAndSparkles.com

I began with taking pictures of my own shadows with arms dancing, layering and filling them. My phone full of nature photos provided plenty of material- my attempts at capturing and remembering some of the wow I see as I walk through the world. There truly is beauty everywhere, if you look. Choosing and blending the images into the final piece, I grounded into the thought that if Mother Nature can carry so many things so well, maybe she also equipped me to carry my load? One thing I know for sure, is that time with her always helps.

Quantum Compassion

Tanya Meyer
Acrylic on canvas

Story

A compassionate heart is what will heal yourself and this world.
At the very core of your being Is a heart is so pure and full of infinite love.
This love is the fuel and life sustaining power of all that is.
You are connected.
You are whole.
You are holy.
Your love transforms worlds.
Clear the lens of perception so that you may shine forth your Soul’s highest expression of Light as you lead with Love.

Cosmic Tree of Life

Olivia Marie Oso
Acrylic on canvas

Story

COSMIC TREE OF LIFE

Each of us has a ‘tree of Life’ within. This universal symbol exists in all cultures around the world. It a sacred element representing the ESSENCE of Life herself.
The tree connects us to the ‘underworld’ and all that exists below the surface as well as with the Ancestral realm and the ancient WISDOM which is in our very DNA.

We are like the trunk, in our physical body, Rooting into the Earth and reaching up to the Heavens….
We flower and bloom and we let go as we age and change. We are the center of all that is…..the cosmos and stars, winds of creation, connecting to the holy earth, living waters, sacred fires
and the very breath of Life.
There is a ‘LIFE FORCE’ from the Sacred Feminine that births us and lights an ancient Fire within our Belly and up through the Chakras in each of energy centers of our sacred temple body.

May we embrace this sacred ‘tree’ within and remember our connection the Soul Tree of All that is.

The TreeWoman

Juniper Mainelis
Acrylic and Mixed Media

Story

1. The Treewoman

She reaches up while rooted deep
Because she is always growing.
In Spring she blossoms and flowers.
Seductive fragrance she’s bestowing.
Rustling and swaying, she drops her fruit.
Scatters seeds in time for sowing.
Like a mother, she shelters the woodland creatures
When the big storms come a-blowing.
Dancing in the wind as her colors change
All the while she’s knowing…
Soon will be time to be quiet and dream
When it begins… the snowing.
Oh Treewoman, shading my back porch
My love for you is overflowing!

2. The Spirit of the Wild ( poem used in collage on the painting)

*Can you hear the calling,
Whispering to your inner child?
It may come to you in a dream;
The spirit of the Wild.
Saying: Come find me in the forest. Learn the desert mystery.
Climb the ridge of the mountain. Dance with me by the sea.
The part of you that’s been sleeping,
That wants to awaken now.
The part that longs to be set free,
But maybe you didn’t know how?
Come have a dance with the Muse.
Listen to your heart song.
The spirit of the Wild lives here.
This is where you belong!
Beauty is the pathway.
Creativity unlocks the door.
When you surrender,
You’ll be changed forevermore!
*Can you hear the calling
Whispering to your inner child?
It may come to you in a dream;
The spirit of the Wild.
Saying: Come find me in the forest. Learn the desert mystery.
Climb the ridge of the mountain. Dance with me by the sea.
Come find me in the forest, Learn the desert mystery.
Climb the ridge of the mountain. Dance with me by the sea… Come find me!

3. * A Musing:

I belong here in the woods, with my beloved trees…
Running my hands over the deep crevices, like reading brail.
Recognizing the ancient patterns and symbols in the bark.
Transcribing the language and legends of their noble race. The ancient ones….
I shiver under the majesty of their towering wisdom!
Here in the cool shade, I pause to listen to the rustling leaves sing the winds’ song…
I decipher the message that all is well.…for I have found berries, herbs, wild mushrooms, and moss.
And I gather up the four-leaf clovers with my wishes pressed into them and pockets bulging with treasures from the grove.
Sitting upon a fallen limb, I begin to beat my drum while whispering a Mother’s prayer and a prayer to the Great Mother…
Let us gather the women and share our wisdom.
Let us teach the children tolerance and forgiveness.
Let us heal the earth and ourselves.
Let us claim our places and remember our herstory.
Let us create and celebrate.
Let us plant Trees.
Let us find peace …
So Mote it Be!

She Who Awakens

Karen Maunder
Acrylic on canvas

Symbolic

“One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”

~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

Loading the next set of gallery items...
Load More

Nurture Nature

Jessica Clark

Oil on Canvas

Story

This painting invites humanity to honor the cycles of the earth and embody the aspects of divine feminine, unconditional love, nurturing, compassion, tenderness, and intuition in order to shift global consciousness towards heart-centered, empowered action where we care for each other and heal Mother Earth. I believe when we “Nurture Nature” we simultaneously nurture ourselves, as connecting with nature is healing for the human spirit. The symbols I’ve chosen to include have meaning across multiple religions and spiritual beliefs because caring for the earth will require participation from all peoples as we are all part of Nature, not separate from it. Balancing the masculine aspects of inner strength and courage (Bear & upward pointing triangle) with aspects of divine feminine (Mother Mary & downward pointing triangle) will bring forward healthy empowerment. The elements (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), cycles (moon), and seasons (Tree of Life) of Earth (Turtle) offer wisdom to the observer. Source-Spirit-God-Creator (Raven) is always present and on our side. It is time to honor our sacred relationship with the Earth.

Ancestral Tree Mother

Pegi Eyers
Acrylic, cut paper, mixed media and digital applications, with an ink border.

Story

The essence of the green world is unconditional love, and since time began the forests have supported the flourishing of life on our beautiful planet. All trees are sentient and sacred, and represent the nurturing power of the divine feminine by freely offering oxygen, food, medicine, nutrients, shade, beauty, healing aerosols and well-being to Earth Community. The Great Mother Trees can live for hundreds or even thousands of years, rooted in a mycelium network that nourishes the life cycles of all species. Spending time in nature with these magnificent beings evokes a journey of ancestral mind, and we remember when our ancient Clan Mothers lived in deep mutual relationship with the Great Mother Trees, blessed with magic, renewal and rebirth. My mixed-media artwork ‘Ancestral Tree Mother’ celebrates our animist connections to the land, and represents the green goddess or ‘natural’ archetype as the irreducible principle that all things rise again in perennial growth. I am inspired by the matriarchies of Old Europe, and using an ink border reminiscent of an ancient Goddess-revering culture, I have created my mother tree with acrylic, cut paper, mixed media and digital applications.

As our ancient Clan Mothers considered the forest to be the foundation of their lives, may we reclaim the same worldview today. The unfailing themes of abundant life and green growth on Earth continue to manifest, even as we move into an unpredictable future. Weaving themes of nature, and the wisdom of the past into our creative practice will plant seeds for the future, and evoke our own sacredness in relationship to Gaia. By combining nature spirituality with our sisterhood circles, may we continue to work toward the protection and planting of trees. When women are fully immersed in the forest, miracles will happen! View more of my work at www.lyssanda-designs.com

Cosmic Tree of Life

Lainie Love Dalby
Shamanic Healing Art mixed media collage with textured paper, cut photographs, stickers, peacock feather, fabric & crystals

Story

This is card 37 from The Sacred (R)evolution® Multimedia Oracle Deck by Lainie Love Dalby.

Channeled Message:
I am the one who is growing a new body each day in cellular regeneration and ecstatic light. I am the one who is reaching deep down into Mama Gaia and far up into the heavens and the cosmic rays of holographic multidimensional light. I exist on all planes simultaneously. I am a deep symbol of LIFE: sustaining life, giving life, generating life. I bring the bounty of heaven down to Earth through the sturdiness of my trunk, like a spinal column of sacred energy pulsing through the universe. I channel light as a backbone between heaven and Earth and out through my branches into the worlds. The healing I offer is subtle and alchemical. It is everlasting. It is ancient and all-knowing. I am the tree of Gnosis. I am all that is. I am you. You are me. Together, we stand tall as a forest of beings, connected through heart energy in a vast ‘we’ field. The mycelial web and our root systems connect us intimately below the earth as our hearts connect us above. We are weaving this holographic light into the tapestry of life and all we do. As I breathe in carbon dioxide, you receive oxygen on the out breath. And in this lemniscate we dance, giving life to one another, sustaining each other. I am you and you are me. We are inseparable. We need each other to thrive.

Divinatory Meaning:
***Plant a tree and honor our interwoven destiny
***Extend your light, love, and nourishment to all those who need them most, like branches of a tree
***Stand tall and strong in your knowing, in your connection to the Earth, in your synergy with the trees
***Send your roots down into the Earth and up into the Heavens
***Activate your Egyptian Light Body for the next level of your grounded expansion

Mother Earth – Earth Mother

Pamela Llano
Digital (my nature photography collaged into a mosaic of shapes made from photos of my own shadows)

Story

I created this piece when my teenagers were spreading their wings on the way to flying. As they were learning to steer 3000 pounds of steel at high speeds, traveling without me, studying abroad and bonus kids had been welcomed into the flock, my heart and mind felt pulled in so many directions- like an overly caffeinated juggler trying not to drop anything ~ because everything meant the world. Nature was always my consistent grounding force. Long walks in the woods, or spotting dandelions breaking through a crack in the street. She never ceases to amaze me.

I remembered a time when my children were little, a very young friend asked me to draw “the perfect mama.” When I asked what she needed, the children circled up and debated on whether she needed 3 breasts to nurse more or eyes all over her head to catch mischief. The thing everyone agreed on was that she should have many, many arms because mama’s always carried a lot. The carrying and the pull were different in my latter stage, but felt stronger perhaps than ever. Stakes felt so much higher, so much less in my control. That memory and those feelings inspired this piece.

I began with taking pictures of my own shadows with arms dancing, layering and filling them. My phone full of nature photos provided plenty of material- my attempts at capturing and remembering some of the wow I see as I walk through the world. There truly is beauty everywhere, if you look. Choosing and blending the images into the final piece, I grounded into the thought that if Mother Nature can carry so many things so well, maybe she also equipped me to carry my load? One thing I know for sure, is that time with her always helps.

 Shekinah’s Glory

Caron McCloud
Acrylic on Canvas

Momma Tree and the Forest Divine

Deborah J. Milton
Acrylic painting ( 30″ x 48″) with metal leaf

Story

Momma Tree and the Forest Divine:
S/He Who Weaves Creator’s Creation
by Deborah J Milton

No single thread weaves the world.
A multiplicity is required
to sew life’s fabric.
Patterns unfold, refold –
in and out and upside down –
Birth-death, birthing, dying,
an endless flow of transforming and dissolving
beginning with mystery
our ending uncertain…

For more than a million years we humans
wove our threads beside all the others,
in among the trees,
our feast, our home, our celebration.
Suddenly,
at least to evolution’s eye,
we two-leggeds in a mere blink,
began to act as if
we
were
the very loom
itself,
forgetting our true nature
as but one life thread,
flourishing among the trees,
returning love to ground.

The Great Mother

Stacey Maney
Charcoal and pencil

Story

Message from the Great Mother:
Here I am. With you I stand.
Open your heart and take my hand.
Find your ease and let it flow.
The less you think the more you’ll know.
The veil between us is very thin.
This new connection means our work can begin.

(This piece was created using a Soul Print process. The initial imprint came from pressing wet newspaper, charcoal, and black chalk on watercolor paper. The final image was then pulled out and defined in more detail using charcoal pencils).

Tree of Life

Kirti Sinha
Acrylic on canvas

Story

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
“Trees give peace to the souls of humans.”
“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.”
“To be without trees would, in the most literal way, to be without our roots.”

This painting of a tree is an abstract form of a Tree as a life source – trees are the source of energy for Earth as well as humans.

In My DNA

Glenda Goodrich
Mixed media: Collaged paper, acrylic paint

Story

Sharing DNA
Sisters of the heart and soul
A joyful knowing

The Dance of Life

Marion Maenner
Acrylics mixed media with polymer clay, shells, pebbles, thrift wood and vintage jewelry on canvas 36″x36″

Story

To exist is to change,
to change is to mature,
to mature is to go on
creating oneself endlessly.

Quote: Henry Bregson
Artwork : SpiralsAndSparkles.com

I began with taking pictures of my own shadows with arms dancing, layering and filling them. My phone full of nature photos provided plenty of material- my attempts at capturing and remembering some of the wow I see as I walk through the world. There truly is beauty everywhere, if you look. Choosing and blending the images into the final piece, I grounded into the thought that if Mother Nature can carry so many things so well, maybe she also equipped me to carry my load? One thing I know for sure, is that time with her always helps.

Quantum Compassion

Tanya Meyer
Acrylic on canvas

Story

A compassionate heart is what will heal yourself and this world.
At the very core of your being Is a heart is so pure and full of infinite love.
This love is the fuel and life sustaining power of all that is.
You are connected.
You are whole.
You are holy.
Your love transforms worlds.
Clear the lens of perception so that you may shine forth your Soul’s highest expression of Light as you lead with Love.

Cosmic Tree of Life

Olivia Marie Oso
Acrylic on canvas

Story

COSMIC TREE OF LIFE

Each of us has a ‘tree of Life’ within. This universal symbol exists in all cultures around the world. It a sacred element representing the ESSENCE of Life herself.
The tree connects us to the ‘underworld’ and all that exists below the surface as well as with the Ancestral realm and the ancient WISDOM which is in our very DNA.

We are like the trunk, in our physical body, Rooting into the Earth and reaching up to the Heavens….
We flower and bloom and we let go as we age and change. We are the center of all that is…..the cosmos and stars, winds of creation, connecting to the holy earth, living waters, sacred fires
and the very breath of Life.
There is a ‘LIFE FORCE’ from the Sacred Feminine that births us and lights an ancient Fire within our Belly and up through the Chakras in each of energy centers of our sacred temple body.

May we embrace this sacred ‘tree’ within and remember our connection the Soul Tree of All that is.

The TreeWoman

Juniper Mainelis
Acrylic and Mixed Media

Story

1. The Treewoman

She reaches up while rooted deep
Because she is always growing.
In Spring she blossoms and flowers.
Seductive fragrance she’s bestowing.
Rustling and swaying, she drops her fruit.
Scatters seeds in time for sowing.
Like a mother, she shelters the woodland creatures
When the big storms come a-blowing.
Dancing in the wind as her colors change
All the while she’s knowing…
Soon will be time to be quiet and dream
When it begins… the snowing.
Oh Treewoman, shading my back porch
My love for you is overflowing!

2. The Spirit of the Wild ( poem used in collage on the painting)

*Can you hear the calling,
Whispering to your inner child?
It may come to you in a dream;
The spirit of the Wild.
Saying: Come find me in the forest. Learn the desert mystery.
Climb the ridge of the mountain. Dance with me by the sea.
The part of you that’s been sleeping,
That wants to awaken now.
The part that longs to be set free,
But maybe you didn’t know how?
Come have a dance with the Muse.
Listen to your heart song.
The spirit of the Wild lives here.
This is where you belong!
Beauty is the pathway.
Creativity unlocks the door.
When you surrender,
You’ll be changed forevermore!
*Can you hear the calling
Whispering to your inner child?
It may come to you in a dream;
The spirit of the Wild.
Saying: Come find me in the forest. Learn the desert mystery.
Climb the ridge of the mountain. Dance with me by the sea.
Come find me in the forest, Learn the desert mystery.
Climb the ridge of the mountain. Dance with me by the sea… Come find me!

3. * A Musing:

I belong here in the woods, with my beloved trees…
Running my hands over the deep crevices, like reading brail.
Recognizing the ancient patterns and symbols in the bark.
Transcribing the language and legends of their noble race. The ancient ones….
I shiver under the majesty of their towering wisdom!
Here in the cool shade, I pause to listen to the rustling leaves sing the winds’ song…
I decipher the message that all is well.…for I have found berries, herbs, wild mushrooms, and moss.
And I gather up the four-leaf clovers with my wishes pressed into them and pockets bulging with treasures from the grove.
Sitting upon a fallen limb, I begin to beat my drum while whispering a Mother’s prayer and a prayer to the Great Mother…
Let us gather the women and share our wisdom.
Let us teach the children tolerance and forgiveness.
Let us heal the earth and ourselves.
Let us claim our places and remember our herstory.
Let us create and celebrate.
Let us plant Trees.
Let us find peace …
So Mote it Be!

She Who Awakens

Karen Maunder
Acrylic on canvas

Mysterious

“In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.”

~ John Fowles

Loading the next set of gallery items...
Load More

Sacred Oak

Lori Sweet
Acrylic on Canvas 12×12

Story

For over 25 years, I made an annual journey to a monastery on the shore of Lake Erie, Pa, USA where I would retreat in a secluded hermitage for silence, rest, and contemplation. During one of my visits, a few years ago, I was resting on the porch while observing a nearby stand of Oak trees. One of them seemed older than the others as she reached over them in a protective way. That tree “felt” female, flowing, sensual, and playful. I was enamored by it. I noticed a little ceramic fairy in one of the branches and some sparkling stones at the base of the tree, apparently left there by previous visitors.

As I sat there, I ended up dozing off and began to dream of a tree that was luminescent against a night sky. There was light glowing all around it. Although the entire scene seemed motionless, I had the sense that the tree was alive, dancing, and calling to me to come closer. I knew something magical was happening behind the tree – as the light grew brighter. I started walking toward the tree with both curious excitement and caution. Just as I was about to glance behind it, I woke up! Oh, how I wanted to know the secret! What was the source of all that light?

This dream and the oak tree were the inspiration for this painting. As I painted it, I felt the interconnection of all things – animals, fungi, trees, moon, and seeds – and the mystical aspects of creation we may glimpse but never fully comprehend.

What do you think is happening behind the tree? The story continues!

Polaris

Kate Langlois
Acrylic, Inktense

Story

Polaris, Guardian of Trees nudges the growth cycles into balance from the expansiveness of in-between spaces. From her changeless core, she tends to the birth, life and death of all wooded beings with great love and respect.

Breath of Creation

Maasa Craig
Acrylic on canvas

Story

The Breath Of Creation

Come home Beloved to what is real so you may know who You are.
Open the portal of your inner eye,
Be reconciled with your infinite nature.

The finite realm of your outer world,
Has shrouded the ever expanding Universe within You.
The world of beginnings, endings and comparisons,
Is an illusion dreamt from a mind that has forgotten.

Remember my Beloved, You began in the heart of the Great Creator.
You and all of Creation is an extension of that which You are made of.
What You may ask?

Your very making is inexhaustible Love.
It is the breath of Creation that gives life to all that Is.
In your dream You have forgotten that You were made to remember.

The deep longing You feel can not be fulfilled by external means.
As long as you see Yourself separate from what You are,
Peace is a fleeting gift in the matrix of Your own making.

Come my Beloved, awaken and see Yourself in the eyes of Another.
You are all of the same beneath the cloak of your individuation.
Awaken and be at peace forever.

Story

As an ecologist I have learned that this World is a personal one. Nature knows us … the wind knows our name as we stand within its caress, the earth acknowledges us when we step on its mantle with bare feet. The waters alchemize our tissues when we drink of it or immerse ourselves in its creeks and rivers. I have come to know that my own deep relationship with All That Is has “emerged” as an organic process. It has happened by simply Being with Nature in observation and listening, by engaging all of my senses with no judgement. I welcome the storm as well as the silence.

Heartwoord Emergence

Barbara Donohue
This is a digital photo montage created by layering original photographs taken by me. The tree is an apple tree and exists in my back yard. The feminine likeness is also me taken with a selfie shot. The headdress was created from photos taken of my own bird sculptures, and house Christmas lights.
This piece contains all original photography.

Reaching for the Light

Melissa Dowling
Photograph

Story

Reaching for the Light

She stands strong and tall in the centre of the grove,
She extends her limbs towards the life-giving light.
She sways in the gentle breeze,
She bends in the cyclonic winds,
She often looses a limb to the elemental forces,
but she always,
always,
returns to reaching for the light.

Patience

Charlotte Jane Kessler
Oil on stretched canvas

Story

This painting was inspired by the idea of Mother Nature, waiting patiently at the edge of a forest, for us, all of humanity, to greet her gaze, her presence, and her force so that we remember her and can begin the journey back to honoring all that she is. How long will she wait for us to turn and reconnect?

“Patience is the gaze that wants to catch us before we fall.
Patience is kindly penetrating and yet firm to the core
Patience is the passion and a signature of hope

She is there
She is waiting.
With all ears
On all fours,

Patience knows the depths of the forest where she goes.
Patience holds her beauty and sovereignty in her pose
Patience is the waiting, and all the weight carried in her soul.

She is Silent,
She is Raging
She’ll not wait
a thousand years more.”

Embraced by the Mother

Paula deJoie
Watercolor pencil

She Who Nurtures Hope

Milagros Suriano-Rivera
Paper Clay, Acrylic Paint, natural branches

Gypsy Midwife of the Trees

Karen Thompson
Acrylic paint on canvas 30″ x 36″

Story

Gypsy Midwife of the Trees

I went looking for you as I asked my soul “what wants to be healed”

I saw a big very old oak tree along the path deep in the woods

Looking closer at the tree I saw a door

Curioser and curiouser I began to try to open the door finding it locked

I created a key by intention and meditation from codes and symbols deep inside

IT Worked!

I unlocked the door and heard a voice say: “How ya gonna get free this time?” in a sing song melody

I followed the melodic voice and saw a woman looking down at the ground

I approached her and noticed she was holding her hands out to grasp mine and she opened her eyes

Those eyes! Her loving nurturing touch!
Her glance pierced my soul

I felt loved and had the feeling of belonging overwhelmed me

She told me that she had been waiting for me for a long time
for the right time.

We talked for hours and she opened me up to so much of myself that had been
locked down for many years

She brought to me an openness to sensuality. Feeling all of the feeling
from all of the senses is ok! And she welcomed this from me
She offered an assistance to rebirth me and to travel with me wherever my soul
would want to fly

I could grab her reindeer antlers and we could fly across the Cosmos!

The hare was given to me as a symbol to remember that she is always there for me

She is my MIDWIFE GYPSY OF THE TREES

Holy Vestibules

Rachel Herzig
Photography

Story

As a young woman trying to find my way back to myself after being terrorized and assaulted by a stalker, I would spend hours and hours with trees—sitting in their branches, leaning with my back against their trunks, gazing up through their leaves at the inscrutable sky. I had an abusive mother who did not care that I had been harmed, and I went to the trees in unconscious need of their mothering energy.

Over time, I found myself drawn more and more to trees that had a hollow at their base. Such trees seemed to offer a special sweetness and comfort to me. When I was especially bereft, I would imagine myself nestled within a hollow, snug in a loving womb..

As I healed from my upbringing by my mother, my relationship with these trees shifted. Instead of a mothering womb, the hollows now called up my own traumatized sensuality. When I came upon a tree hollow shaped like a vulva, I would see it filled with barbed wire. I would then work, painstakingly, to imagine the barbed wire covered with blossoms, transformed into a wild and beautiful garden.

For decades I despaired of ever fully healing. Until, that is, I came just recently to live in a land where junipers are the only tree. Many find junipers ugly because their bark peels like a snake constantly shedding skin. But when I came upon a juniper hollow shaped like a vulva, I felt not despair, but awe. There is such beauty in a juniper’s continual self-revelation. Because of a juniper’s filigreed skin, light passes through its bark into its interior, illuminating its hollow and rendering it holy. As I, too, now know myself to be.

Tree Sister

Rosalie Kohler
Watercolour and ink on 300g/m paper, 29.7 x 21 cm

Story

We are remembering,
reweaving the threads of our being
into the tapestry of the wild.
Softening into the Earth’s embrace,
as our roots feel their way
into the accommodating soil.
Rooting into interconnection,
as we welcome the breath
that we share with the trees.
Embracing the intimacy of reciprocal relationship,
each breath affirming our belonging
to the web of life.
The landscapes of our bodies
are beginning to sing
the wild song of the living Earth.
She is calling us home.
Home to the shelter of the Mother Tree,
teaching us to stand in her magnificence,
to spread our arms wide,
reaching for the hands of our sisters
as we grow a forest of the Feminine
to restore balance to our planet
and honour the sacredness of life.

Story

I call her Grandmother…
Standing silent now, a ghost of her former self,
burgeoning with life.
The scent of plump eucalyptus budding flowers,
seeds and pods of potential progenies
offering nourishment to all,
a distant memory.
Stripped bare.
Some say she is dead.
Now, she offers her bones to support life of a different sort.
Resting into the passage of time
she still offers her reaching arms
and generous womblike space for weary travellers.
Still, some say she is dead.
She simply rests now.
Her extending branches exposing
the beauty of her form.
This is who she is,
there is nothing to hide now.
Transparent.
Standing like a custodian of wisdom,
a sovereign beauty maintaining her dignity
no longer captive to the ravages of time,
her energies withdrawing
to her own guiding heartbeat
nourishing her resilience to stand tall
when others around her have fallen.
She is magnetic in her strong presence
to those who value her worth.
She sits, they come.
Still, some say she is dead.
But I can hear her whisper: “come sit in my sacred space”.
Oh yes… she is very much alive….
she has simply surrendered gracefully to the next stage of her cycle.

Grandmother

Yaelle Schwarcz
Photography

The Mothers

Carol Cameron
Sculpture: tomato cage, fabric, cardboard, wire, wool, cotton, tulle, fiberglass

Story

We are a united presence to bear witness to your coming of age. As we extend our support to the smallest and weakest among us through our root system so must you as humans reach out to uplift each other. It is in giving that you will receive both insight and direction.

We have an abundance of divine creative energy which can be consciously harnessed. We are a universal whole where pairs of opposites can come together. When you tap into our energy we can be a mythic boon where the physical and sacred are united. Rest in our quiet strength as you unfold to reveal the truth of who you really are.

The Mothers are one sculpture from an entire group of eleven sculptures that make up the traveling exhibit called Council of 9. There is an urgency of our time as we seem to be in a universal “dark night of the soul” with issues such as a global pandemic, collapsing economies, political polarities spurred on by mistruths, climate change, racial injustice, and lack of spiritual connection. Council of9 asks that we as humans evolve our consciousness to be a more compassionate and aware species with genuine concern for others, the planet, and those generations that will come after us.

Deeply Grounded

Susan Voss
Acrylic on canvas

Story

The light of the moon shines into my soul,
The earth holds my roots as I search for greater depths,
Rising higher, seeking the light.

Joy comes through the Mother Tree as the rain embraces my song,
Water tangled with wet roots and tender leaves,
The light shines on, and on.

Be the darkness, be the light.
Be the song longing to be song.
Be the dance longing to be danced.
Be the life longing to be lived.

Mysterious

“In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.”

~ John Fowles

Loading the next set of gallery items...
Load More

Sacred Oak

Lori Sweet
Acrylic on Canvas 12×12

Story

For over 25 years, I made an annual journey to a monastery on the shore of Lake Erie, Pa, USA where I would retreat in a secluded hermitage for silence, rest, and contemplation. During one of my visits, a few years ago, I was resting on the porch while observing a nearby stand of Oak trees. One of them seemed older than the others as she reached over them in a protective way. That tree “felt” female, flowing, sensual, and playful. I was enamored by it. I noticed a little ceramic fairy in one of the branches and some sparkling stones at the base of the tree, apparently left there by previous visitors.

As I sat there, I ended up dozing off and began to dream of a tree that was luminescent against a night sky. There was light glowing all around it. Although the entire scene seemed motionless, I had the sense that the tree was alive, dancing, and calling to me to come closer. I knew something magical was happening behind the tree – as the light grew brighter. I started walking toward the tree with both curious excitement and caution. Just as I was about to glance behind it, I woke up! Oh, how I wanted to know the secret! What was the source of all that light?

This dream and the oak tree were the inspiration for this painting. As I painted it, I felt the interconnection of all things – animals, fungi, trees, moon, and seeds – and the mystical aspects of creation we may glimpse but never fully comprehend.

What do you think is happening behind the tree? The story continues!

Polaris

Kate Langlois
Acrylic, Inktense

Story

Polaris, Guardian of Trees nudges the growth cycles into balance from the expansiveness of in-between spaces. From her changeless core, she tends to the birth, life and death of all wooded beings with great love and respect.

Breath of Creation

Maasa Craig
Acrylic on canvas

Story

The Breath Of Creation

Come home Beloved to what is real so you may know who You are.
Open the portal of your inner eye,
Be reconciled with your infinite nature.

The finite realm of your outer world,
Has shrouded the ever expanding Universe within You.
The world of beginnings, endings and comparisons,
Is an illusion dreamt from a mind that has forgotten.

Remember my Beloved, You began in the heart of the Great Creator.
You and all of Creation is an extension of that which You are made of.
What You may ask?

Your very making is inexhaustible Love.
It is the breath of Creation that gives life to all that Is.
In your dream You have forgotten that You were made to remember.

The deep longing You feel can not be fulfilled by external means.
As long as you see Yourself separate from what You are,
Peace is a fleeting gift in the matrix of Your own making.

Come my Beloved, awaken and see Yourself in the eyes of Another.
You are all of the same beneath the cloak of your individuation.
Awaken and be at peace forever.

Heartwoord Emergence

Barbara Donohue
This is a digital photo montage created by layering original photographs taken by me. The tree is an apple tree and exists in my back yard. The feminine likeness is also me taken with a selfie shot. The headdress was created from photos taken of my own bird sculptures, and house Christmas lights.
This piece contains all original photography.

Story

As an ecologist I have learned that this World is a personal one. Nature knows us … the wind knows our name as we stand within its caress, the earth acknowledges us when we step on its mantle with bare feet. The waters alchemize our tissues when we drink of it or immerse ourselves in its creeks and rivers. I have come to know that my own deep relationship with All That Is has “emerged” as an organic process. It has happened by simply Being with Nature in observation and listening, by engaging all of my senses with no judgement. I welcome the storm as well as the silence.

Reaching for the Light

Melissa Dowling
Photograph

Story

Reaching for the Light

She stands strong and tall in the centre of the grove,
She extends her limbs towards the life-giving light.
She sways in the gentle breeze,
She bends in the cyclonic winds,
She often looses a limb to the elemental forces,
but she always,
always,
returns to reaching for the light.