DAY 187

DAY 187
10.08.07
TREE 109

Even though I have climbed many trees on the Mount St. Francis property, and I thought I would have trouble finding more good trees to climb, I went walking on the grounds to climb a tree.  I walked out the main drive thinking I might find a good one along Route 150.  But before I even got there a tree caught my eye in the first field on the left as you come in.  I walked over and sure enough I saw a path up.  Surprised I never had noticed this before, I set to getting up in the tree.  I am quite sore from my activities at the gym yesterday, but as I went up my muscles loosened up.  The first step I had to use the crevices made by the diverging trunks, and old dead limbs.  But not a problem, slow going, but not difficult.  Then once on the limbs it was just solving the puzzle of which path to take. 

I went up one major arm, then transferred to another.  It wasn’t the highest so I climbed up slightly higher till I could transfer back.  The limbs are stronger at the top so I could get a good grip with my hands and pull my body up to get a good foothold on another limb. 

I worked my way up all the way to the top and got a comfortable stance.  I took some pictures and forced the limbs to sway back and forth. 

It felt really good.  I grabbed a yellow leaf then made my way down. 

I tried a different way then I had come up and was successful.  It was faster down with less transfers.  Once on the ground I backed up to take some more pictures and behind the tree, in the sky, was a huge cloud with the sun behind it casting huge light rays all around it. 

I ran further back and took a bunch of pictures. 

It was beautiful.  Another good challenge and fun tree.

10-8-08:  How could I ever think that in just 6 months I exhausted the tree climbing possibilities in a 400+ acre nature sanctuary.  My idea of what a good climbing tree is has changed.  I’ll climb just about anything.  Big, small, wide, tall, dead, live, limbless, branchfull, you find it, I’ll give it a try.  That means there are endless trees for me to climb.  But really, even if I just stuck to easy climbing trees, I could still probably climb everyday for the rest of my life and not repeat a tree.  As long as I could travel a lot.

Our second day in Chicago was a busy one.  We got up early, grabbed some breakfast then headed back to the Ventas office.  We worked an 8 hour day walking around the public spaces and private offices and holding up paintings, photos, drawings, and sculptures seeing if a few of the employees in the office approved.  Once it was all decided and placed we split up into teams and hung and documented the pieces.  I am very glad to report that the 5 photos I had printed for the trip were all chosen to line one of their hallways.

When a few of the office workers were looking at them I approached and told them I was the artist and explained my work.  I told them a few stories and explained to them about long-exposure photos.  They were most surprised to hear that none of the images were cropped or manipulated on PhotoShop.  One was, but just to remove a black spot.  It was great to be able to talk about my work and see such a positive response.  Hopefully they enjoy their year with my images and choose to purchase them.  That would be awesome. 

Finally, around 5 we finished and headed out into the rain to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  They had some good shows and a really cool gift shop.  But we were tired of being on our feet and were ready to get to the hotel, get on some dry clothes and get some food.  We had a great meal at the restaurant in the hotel, swapped stories and boozed it up a little. 

Joel and I crashed back in our room and I fell asleep to the debate.  When I woke I prepared myself for the coming wet climb.  Joel wished me luck and I headed down and out of the hotel onto the corner of Wabash and Whacker.  I walked over the bridge over the river and was trying to get to a tree down by the tour boat dock.  But due to the Trump building in progress, the area was blocked off.  I walked back over to a collection of small trees by a major intersection and picked out one there. 

Since it was dark, late, and misting there were no people to see me as I climbed up into the wet tree and pause at the top to take pictures.  I was so nervous in the beginning that I rushed to get my camera out, but my heart was beating too hard for me to hold my camera still.  As I looked out from the tree and saw… well, I am just going to stop here and let my images speak for themselves.

A lot of the building tops were pink for breast cancer.  One building by Millennium Park spelled out THINK PINK in lights.

Anyone a fan of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album?

That is the new Trump building disappearing into the clouds.  Awesome.

I just kept shooting and shooting.  There was just so much to see.  All the while I would look down to the street and sidewalk curious to see if I had been spotted.  But no one saw me.  I put my camera away… gazed around a little more then climbed back down.  What a damn good experience.  I was so hyped up I went to the hotel bar to treat myself to a drink and listen to a couple older guys talk about old Saturday Night Live  cast members they thought were funny.

Though I think climbing in large cities is mostly difficult with slim pickings and increased security, I did enjoy my Chicago climbs.