01: TOUCH

Some catching up to do.  I'll make an effort from here on to be more stream-of-conscious (and more punctual) in my writing; too many thoughts (and too many 'great' ideas!) are my constant bane.

The above piece was, for me, a contemplation on the boundary between man and nature - or, more specifically, between people and trees.  Civilization stampedes on toward urbanization, destroying and irrevocably transforming the arboreal planet with each passing industrial sabotage.  Now, we either ignore the consequences or face them head on - they will come for us with or without consent.

A void exists as man becomes increasingly dissociated from the trees, the giants from whence we came, as we descended to our bipedal destiny some hundred centuries past, in the motherland of Sumerian Africa.  The chasm has expanded incessantly ever since, perhaps wider now than ever before.  This trend must reverse, if we have any chance at all.

Call me a tree-hugger if you will, but the spiritual connection between man and tree is undeniable; it runs deep as the most penetrating of roots in the earth beneath our feet.  We share the land with the trees, we tear them down to build them back up in commodified units, 2x4s and the like - can we not just walk beneath them?

To respect the trees, one must commune with them, breathe in as they breathe out, unearth the relationship that lies buried, hidden out of reach.  What vastness lies silent underfoot?  You need only dig to know.

00: BEGINNINGS

The first post.  Perhaps of many, we shall see.  Better to find out later than to give it thought now.  And so it begins.

My name is Joshua Samuel Gevertz, by birth.  I have always called myself Josh.  You may as well, dearest reader.

This post is intended to be a self-introduction.  I often find these sorts of things very ponderous and excessively introspective, but perhaps that is just my nature.  As an artist, I suffered a protracted period devoid of much in the way of creative making while I was an undergraduate student of marine biology - my focus was on the development of my rational, scientific skills.  I have been an avid drawer and maker since I was a young child, and I have only recently come to apprehend how deep a chasm I had rendered in my spiritual well-being by cutting myself off from the therapy of drawing.  

Thankfully, this abstinence is no longer.  I have gone to great lengths to reacquaint myself with the pencil, and the process of pencil on paper.  I am perhaps less fearful now of the blank page  than I have ever been (and at times I have been irreparably afraid of its emptiness...) - and now, I cast my marks upon the page at will, with joy and steady satisfaction!  May the creative muses never abandon me so forcefully again, I hope.

I won't say much more here, but I would like to note that it is my intention for this semester of projects to be an exploration of the human relationship, and in particular my relationship, to trees.  To my mind, there is nothing more sacred in the physical world than a proud and majestic mature tree, branches reaching up for the sun and leaves ruffling on a gust of wind.  There is power in the kinship between man and tree, a power that is slipping from our grasp as many a tree and forest falls to the ceaseless onslaught of civilization.  Writ large, there has perhaps never been a more important time to rekindle the bond between man and tree, to return to our spiritual nest and protect the giants whose shade and shelter has safeguarded mankind for millennia.  For those that cannot speak themselves, yet stand forever by our side, I will draw.