Thursday, November 16, 2023

To ash we return

Our class doesn't usually draw from life but today we did. The big ash tree next door, whose brilliant yellow leaves had provided the materials for our improvised response to the removal of the dead maples from the courtyard last month, has now dropped all of its leaves, and, thanks to a leaf blower, they're gone without a trace.
From the 4th-floor skybridge, we drew the knotty skeletal branches of the ash peeking out above the remaining red of our maples. One student remembered the gift of the leaves with a golden heart. Another, recalling that the shade from the ash contributed to the dying of the maples, writes "the killer." Others just drew!