I tried an experiment in "Religion of Trees" today and it failed. Or maybe it succeeded.
One of our readings for the day focused on images of trees, especially in art and religion; the other recommended we learn "tree thinking" from actual trees, and in their terms. After exploring the articles, I handed out a sheet with our first sixty class sketches (above). We marveled in the variety of styles and approaches. There's a lot of fancy in them!
After that, I announced we were going to do some "drawing from life," and told them to head out the door of our building and down the street; "draw the last tree on the left, the one just before o Cafe." After ten minutes we were to gather in the Lang courtyard and share what we came up with.
Well and good. The fifteen drawings were spirited and delightful. "We all saw a different tree," I quipped. There was only one problem. I'd selected that tree for drawing because it was one seriously wounded by a blizzard in February; three of its main branches are just splintered stumps now. Would all the students notice in their drawing or only some? In the end it was none of them! (The sketch at bottom right is my own.)
So much for drawing from life! It's not that hard to see the tree's wounds, or its asymmetry, if you're looking but the students were seeing something else: a flourishing, unblemished tree in all its splendor. I guess they were happy to be drawing an actual tree, not just sketching in a classroom. Except... were they drawing the actual tree?
I was initially discouraged that not even one student had noticed. Should I have told them to look out for wounds? Maybe they had never thought that trees could be injured? Or is it better this way: learning through experience that we don't really see trees even when we think we are seeing them, projecting all sorts of expectations and patterns instead. I could have told them this happens, but this shared experience makes the point far more convincingly.
When we gather again next Tuesday we're going back to the callery pear near o Cafe to draw. What will we see then?
