The Bending Tree

So my good friend Daniel Griswold has been writing a series of poems about New England... sort of an artistic farewell he began working on before he moved to South Carolina for a Youth Ministry position... yes, he left me. Very sad indeed. For some reason saving young people's lives was more important than playing Wii with me... go figure. But anyway, he asked me to make some illustrations for his poems with the intentions of publishing them. DG is a very talented artist, so I'm still a little flattered that he asked me to illustrate these for him... once I get off cloud 9 I'll finish the rest of the drawings. In the meantime, here's the first illustration for a poem of his titled "The Bending Tree"...


If anybody has lived in New England, they're familiar with the concept of that one out-of-place, looks older than your grandfather (and equally as senile) tree which stands curiously proud in the corner of a landscape filled with symmetrical, flourishing and almost cult-like green, glorious trees by a broken down stone wall. I won't post the poem on here because that's Dan's property and I don't want someone stealing it or even thinking I, myself, wrote it. If you want to read it, than wait for the book... or contact Dan over at his blog.

The idea behind the illustration (aside from being about Dan's poem) is how if one were to speak to that old, decrepit tree it would say that it is proud to be where it is, and the way that it is. It's dying branches would become earth again and help to grow newer trees... the tree is happy that it is the way it is, not wanting anything more than to be. So the picture is meant to portray that pride in what others may perceive as one's flaws.

Bendy, bendy, bendy,
~ Mark