National Tree Week 2011

Sally Mann - Scarred Tree 1996, from the series Deep South

National Tree Week began in 1975, and runs from the 26th November to the 4th December. It celebrates the start of the tree planting season, and is a great way to get communities working together on conservation and awareness projects.

As i'm sure regular readers will know, I rather like Trees. Well...I love Trees. A lot. I know Thom Bridge understands!

 A giant sequoia log, Sequoia National Park, California, undated, c1910

Trees and forests, probably because of their great size and longevity, have always vividly stirred our imaginations. Like mountains and stones they seemed immobile, but unlike them, trees could change and sway. They stir thoughts of time and mortaility, dense forests can provide a quietness that can sometimes be overwhelming - they have often been feared and respected.

Even lone trees, particularly in a barren spot, may have appeared miraculous if they provided food for a starving wanderer. Trees were seen and touched by the earliest humans; utilized for food, fuel, shelter, clothing, fences and barriers, lances and spears; and burned, cut or transformed into numerous objects. Their shadows provided cover, camouflage and hiding places for persons on either side of the law. They also provide death. Blunt, but true. From being used in lynching, to becoming self-made memorials, there is definate dark side of trees many would never consider. There has recently been such a sad situation in the woods which are often featured in my photographs, you can see the the torn bark around the branch.

The Survivor Tree, an American Elm Tree in Oklahoma, it survived the bomb’s blast and witnessed one of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil. On April 19, 1995, the tree was almost chopped down to recover pieces of evidences that hung from its branches due to the force of the 4,000 pound bomb that killed 168 and injured hundreds just yards away. The Survivor Tree is a symbol of human resilience. Today, as a tribute to renewal and rebirth, the inscription around the tree reads, “The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us.”

  
On 9/11, debris from the collapsing WTC towers knocked over a giant sycamore tree that had stood for nearly a centuary in St. Paul's churchyard. When the dust settled, the uprooted tree was found lying on a narrow path in the yard. It had fallen in such a way that none of the historic tombstones around it were disturbed, and none of the wreckage reached the chapel. Scluptor Steve Tobin heard the story of the syeamore and envisioned using it’s root as the base of a bronze sculpture.

Trees and forests took on symbolic divine characteristics, or were seen to represent superlative forces such as courage, endurance or immortality. They were the means of communication between worlds. Some societies made them into magical totems. Sometimes a particular tree was considered to be sacred because of association with a holy individual, saint or prophet. Trees have frequently held great religious significance, for example the tree under which the Buddha received enlightenment and the tree used for the crucifixion of Jesus. As a result they often featured in religious rituals, and still do today. Examples include trees upon which prayers or offerings are hung in many different cultures, and the Christmas tree, a custom whose present form evolved in Europe in the nineteenth century. 

 The "Jesus Tree" of Malta

In almost every part of the world travelers have observed the custom of hanging objects upon trees in order to establish some sort of a relationship between themselves and the tree. Throughout Europe also, a mass of evidence has been collected testifying to the lengthy persistence of superstitious practices and beliefs concerning them. The trees are known as the scenes of pilgrimages, ritual ambulation, and the recital of prayers.

 Example of a Wishing Tree in Turkey

The custom of transferring disease or sickness from men to trees is well known. Sometimes the hair, nails, clothing of a sickly person are fixed to a tree, or they are forcibly inserted in a hole in the trunk, or the tree is split and the patient passes through the aperture.

The concept of a tree of life, a many-branched tree illustrating the idea that all life on earth is related, has been used in science, religion, philosophy, mythology, and other areas. 

 An Icelandic example of "The Tree Of Life" 

British folklore wouldn't be complete without some spirtis and witches, and tree's are no different!

The European Rowan tree has long been thought to be a magical tree and protection against witches. It was said in England that this was the tree on which the Devil hanged his mother?! (Crikey!) 

The density of the rowan wood makes it very usable for walking sticks, as in Celtic mythology where it prevents those on a journey from getting lost. Rowan was carried on vessels to avoid storms, kept in houses to guard against lightning, and even planted on graves to keep the deceased from haunting. It was also used to protect one from witches. Even without the connection to witches, yew trees had many superstitions attached to them. It was best not to lie down under a yew, despite the nice cold shade. The tree would suck the life out of anyone, as soon as he or she fell asleep. Yew has always grown in graveyards, as people believed that the tree drank the poison from the ground which was infected by the dead.

 Ancient Yew Tree at Waverley Abbey

The Hardy Tree can be found in Old St. Pancras Churchyard, London. The Ash tree is surrounded by monuments that were, as legend has it, moved by Thomas Hardy during his days as an architect clerk during the regeneration of Kings Cross in the 1860's.  Some of Hardy's poetry is reputed to be inspired by his time working on this unpleasant job - particularly 'In the Cemetery'.

In all honesty, I could talk about trees all day, I hope you have enjoyed reading! 

Better leave with one of mine:

Katie Bedlow, 10x8 contact, 2010.

Thanks! Hope you all have a good week!

Watts Gallery

Watts Gallery has always been on my "To Visit" list, as we always drive through Compton on the way to visit my Grandad. My mum last went about 15 years ago, so she was very interested to see how it had been improved since the £10m restoration, the building was actualy on the English Heritage's "At Risk" list!

Considering I am completely obsessed with the Arts and Crafts movement, my first impression was, "Isn't this LOVELY" - and it only got lovelier as we walked around. It was truly a beautiful and unique resoration, and i think it beats many of the larger more well-known London galleries, and makes them look quite clinical and dull.

The gallery originaly opened in 1904, and the restoration returned the walls to their original vivid blues and reds, and the tiled dado rails (previosuly covered in paint) back to their shiny best. As you walk into the sculpture studio, you are blown away by the use of glass and high wooden beams, as the architects Adam Zombory-Moldovan and Lucy Clark of ZMMA – has brought in light and drama.

In his day, George Fredrick Watts was as popular as Dickens, in that they both used the inequalities of Victorian life in their work. He was internationaly renowned, being the first living artist to be given a one man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was born in London in 1817 and was encouraged to persue his artistic ambitions by his father. He exhibited at at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the first time in 1837 with his painting "The Wounded Heron". Thereafter, there seemed nothing Watts could not achieve, portraits, narrative painting, landscapes and even sculpture (see in my photo's below, his Monument To Lord Tennyson - awe inspiring)

His most famous painting, and still Barack Obama's favourite, is "Hope", the curled bindfolded woman astride a globe with her broken lyre. At the gallery is the finest version of this painting, on loan from a private collection, and they had an accompaning exhibit about it's amazing story, and several different artists own interpretation of the work.

I think that's what i take most from Watt's work, it isn't just classic Victorian symbolism, his paintings are timeless, relating as much to the modern world and all it's troubles. My favourite of his paintings is "Drowned" and in the gallery where you can see the true vivid spirit of the work, the body seems to glow amongst the looming darkness. Watts could capture the essence of a spirit by using light like no other painter. Go see the paintings in the flesh and you'll see exactly what I mean, they will capture you!

I am also a fan of his wifes work, Mary Seton Watts, who collaborated with him on many of his creative projects. In this room they exhibited many of their diaries, sketches and experiments which was facinating to see. They worked as a fantastic team, Mary was actualy one of his students, so she was a skilled craftswoman in her own right. I think she influenced his sculpture style immensly, as the examples of her own work prove.

My mum's favourite painting was "Portrait of The Painter's Wife" - A stunning study of Mary Watts. He certainly adored the female neck, several of his paintings are homages to this pose.

Together, George and Mary left London for Compton where they built their house Limnerslease, and commissioned Christopher Hatton Turner to create a nearby gallery in Arts & Crafts style, "a simple & rural type of building", to be constructed of rendered concrete and Surrey tiles. It opened in 1904, just three months before Watts died. Thereafter, it was Mary who kept the flame alive, and it is her that we have to thank for the richness of the gallery's collection – something the refurbished Watts sweetly acknowledges with its display of her remarkable bronze triptych in memory of her nephew, Death Crowning Innocence. Mary was, of course, a supremely talented artist in her right; the Compton Potters' Arts Guild she founded survived until the 1950s.

Here are some more photographs i took from the sculpture room, such intricate work! I was blown away by these studies.

Now, some of you may recognise the style of these plaques, as they are the same as those in The Postman's Park Memorial in London. This garden was built in memory to those who's heroric deeds ended in fatality. George Watts attempted to gains support for the memorial through The Times and other initiatives, but recieved little interest. Undeterred, he championed the project over 34 years, completing it just four years before his death.

This could be my most admired of Watts work, a completely selfless deed. I must pay the park a visit, I must admit, i've only seen a photographic representation of it at The Whitechapel Gallery - One for the "to do" list!

Watts has something for everyone to enjoy. The collection comprises 6,000 objects including 250 oil paintings, 800 drawings and watercolours and 200 sculptures. These works have never had a better chance of capturing the imagination of a new generation for whom the great GF Watts, and his wife, Mary, are still an unknown quantity.

Thanks!

Katie

Last days of Autumn

Finally, after much technical difficulty, here are my last photographs from autumn, including those from Mine and Claire's autumn tea party! My favourite time of year is drawing to a close now, with the misty November days becoming shorter and shorter, at least i've got some nice photos to look back on from those golden afternoons! There's some nice woodland shots at the end too (naturally!), hope you enjoy,

Hope you're having a good week! I'm looking forward to cracking on with the christmas crafts this weekend, I have such a lot to get on with :S

Katie

Rememberance

 Antique silk poppies, found via The Vintage Cottage HERE

Those who read regularly will know how growing up in Aldershot, Home of the British Army, has had a lasting effect on me, and encouraged my interest in military history. Today is such an important time for thought and reflection. It's the 93rd year of Remembrance day, and I hope that many will pause and think at 11 o'clock.

The First Two Minute Silence in London (11 November 1919) was reported in the Manchester Guardian on 12 November 1919:

"The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect. The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all^"

If only the modern world showed the same decency.

Those who choose to wear the poppy carry a powerful symbol, the red flower that sprung from the bodies of ALL those who fell in those fields, not just British soldiers. There has been too many examples of negative journalism directed at wearing poppies this week. I find it utterly disgraceful that people could be so cruel, and mostly, it just shows how ridiculous people can be. I would probably care about it more if i thought they knew anything about history themselves.

Those men fought for us. Never mind if it was right or wrong, they went to those trenches no matter what they believed. How could we ever question remembering their sacrifice? For my age group particularly, it doesn't seem the done thing to be proudly wearing the poppy (i'm probably supposed to be off protesting somewhere and causing aggravation) but sorry, you will never change my mind on this one. We've lost our last remaining WW1 soldiers now, and I can't help worrying that we could ever loose our traditions too.

I think Britain should also be proud to have such a potent symbol of remembrance in The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey which was inspired by an inscription on an anonymous grave in Armentieres, France, on a rough cross upon which was pencilled the words "An Unknown British Soldier". After seeing this grave in 1916, The Reverend David Railton wrote to the Dean of Westminster suggesting having a nationally recognised grave for an unknown soldier. As it was 1920, memories of the War was still raw, and Britain had a guilty concious about the thousands of bodies which lay unidentified in those foreign fields,

"Those parents and wives who had lost men to war didn't have anything tangible to grieve at, so the unknown warrior represented their loss" says Terry Charman, a historian at the Imperial War Museum.

The unknown warrior's body was chosen from a number of British servicemen exhumed from four battle areas - the Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres. These remains were brought to the chapel at St Pol on the night of 7 November 1920, where the officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders, Brig Gen L J Wyatt, went with a Col Gell. Neither had any idea where the bodies, laid on stretchers and covered by union jacks, were from.

"The point was that it literally could have been anybody. It could have been an earl or a duke's son, or a labourer from South Africa. The idea really caught the public mood, as it was a very democratic thing that it could have been someone from any rank." 

Gen Wyatt selected one body - it has been suggested he may have been blindfolded while making his choice - and the two officers placed it in a plain coffin and sealed it. The other bodies were reburied.
The next day the dead soldier began the journey to his final resting place. The coffin was taken to Boulogne and placed inside another coffin, made of oak from Hampton Court and sent over from England. Its plate bore the inscription: "A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country". This second coffin had a 16th Century sword, taken from King George V's private collection, fixed on top. A two minutes silence marked it's placement in Westminster Abbey.

"To have its own unknown warrior, for a country that sent troops to WWI, is part of its own national identity” Terry Charman

Ninety years on, the dead soldier continues to be honoured, by the public and royalty alike.
What's more, the symbolism of the act has been mirrored by many other countries around the world. Iraq, the United States, Germany and Poland are just some of those which have created their own memorials.
I hope you will take a moment today to consider how different the world would be now if those men hadn't gone. I know I always will. After visiting the battlegrounds myself and standing on that very same soil, I feel like I owe it to each and every one of them. No matter WHAT side of the line they fought on, we should remember them.

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields."

John McCrae, May 1915 

Thanks for reading.

Katie