October 2008 – Page 7

DAY 203
10.24.07
TREE 127

Today was grey and cold. First day in the 50’s. I almost can’t handle it. Seems like just a week ago it was almost 90. A few weeks of 70’s then 60’s would have been nice. But really, I love the hot weather. I never complained. I’d definitely take hot summers over cold winters. Anyway, my exhibit had the most traffic since the opening. My parents brought some relatives from Cincinnati to see it. And the sister of the 3-D teacher at IUS came. Plus Leslie Orthober, my mom’s friend came. She said she’s been following my work since high school. That is very flattering but why have I not known this? She offered up this monstrous copper beech in her backyard for me to climb any time. I’ll definitely taker her up on that. Then I went shopping for work clothes and boots. I thought I might climb out in Clarksville, but didn’t. I made my way to Highlander Pointe to eat dinner at Los Indios but just before I went in I walked behind the Jay-C. There were lots of nice trees that I started to explore then I realized I was in someone’s backyard. So I quickly walked back to the first tree I spotted right behind the store. I had to pull an overhanging limb down to climb up. This time it wasn’t hard to right myself. It branched in such a way to make it easy to get to my feet. Then I climbed with ease up and all the way to the top. Up there the leaves are beautiful reds.

I took some pictures trying to capture the natural color in contrast with the concrete and neon lights of the shopping center in the background.

The branches were strong and I had a comfortable seat.

Though this tree was not incredibly challenging or scary, there was something about it, maybe its beauty, that made me just love it. I held its limbs with reverence. It was a good climb, and cold, but not too bad that my hands ached. Just right. A perfect fall, late evening climb.

10-28-08: I believe I am having a temporary funk phase. I thought about it last night and concluded that the cold weather and the lack of something bi to look forward to has placed me in this state. I am behind on my blogging (as you can see) and my house is still a mess from arranging and unpacking. Yesterday I tried to counteract the bad habits I fall into in these funks by going to Zephyr and patching their gutter, then went home and cleaned out all our gutters. I also fixed the beeping from the smoke detector in Drew’s room which was quite the ordeal since our ceilings are so freaking high. But even after all that I didn’t feel much better. I have found that after I have a show, immediately after the opening I have a momentary low. Like a Postpartem Depression. I just need to re-examine my future goals, establish some deadlines, make some plans, and get going. Like today… I will catch up on my blogging, no matter what it takes. So get ready for some posts to read.

That being said, I will now try to remember what the hell happened on my tree climb last Thursday. That was the morning I left Cassandra and Jason’s. I drove back to Dublin and stopped at Coffman Park to see my bodies one more time. One of the plaques under my bodies went missing so I went into the building and told the lady at the front desk. She seemed completely at a loss for what to do. I asked if she had even seen any of the art from the show and she hadn’t. Fair enough… then I had to explain that she should contact the Arts Council and just notify them which plaque is missing. I kind of wondered how she gets anything done. Later I asked her for directions to Trader Joe’s and she was even more flustered. She fumbled with a map, was completely unclear and had no idea how to tell me how to get there even though she said she knew exactly where it was and that she could get there herself. Then, and here’s the kicker, she said, "You should know to never ask a woman fordirections." What!? Way to take one step backward for your sex.

Anyway… I chose to climb the fourth and last tree with my body in it, the one by the skate park. I did not care about getting dirty or sweaty so I figured I should give it a shot. This large sycamore has two large trunks that split very low to the ground.

I wedged myself between them and saw this little metal tag:

Pretty cool… tree #3283 now has a human cicada shell. I really hope they want to buy one. (Getting off track easily this morning)

I went slowly up between the trunks and struggled to find a path as the trunks diverged from each other making it harder to keep my grip. There were some knobby knobs on the side and back of one of the trunks and I tried using those to rotate around but they were smooth and provided no good grip.

I was trying to get to that dead branch. Not certain it would hold me, I figured the collar of it would… just something I could grab to re-evaluate and climb higher.

I did finally find a knot that I could use and I rotated around the trunk and grabbed the dead branch. My muscles were tiring and I was hurrying to find a way to my feet. This branch was very hollow sounding and I just didn’t trust it to hold my weight. I started to panic a little. I was high enough off the ground that a fall would be very painful and I was worried that I may have trouble getting back to the knot to rotate back around and in between the trunks. Things were not looking good and my arms were really wearing out. I looked around and saw a smallhackberry tree within reach. I grabbed it and pulled it in, moved my legs over and attempted the transfer but at the last second thought it might not hold my weight and just bend down to the ground. I moved quickly back to the collar of the dead limb and did my best to rest my muscles while still holding me up. I cleared my head and thought… hackberry trees are incredibly strong… it will hold me, don’t doubt it. So I prepared to make the transfer again, pulled it towards me and this time hooked my legs in a little further. Then I let go of the dead branch I was free of the sycamore. I paused in the small tree happy that it held just like I predicted. I got out my camera and took some pictures of the trees and the body high above me.