In this dark and wounded society, writing can give you the pleasures of the woodpecker, of hollowing out a hole in a tree where you can build your own nest and say, “This is my niche, this is where I live now, this is where I belong.”
–Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994)
My annual solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery opens on Friday, June 14. This year’s edition will be my 25th such show at this marvelous gallery located in the heart of historic Alexandria, Virginia. The title for my first show was RedTree which marked the beginning of the ubiquitous tree that has been linked to me for the last quarter of a century.
I thought it was only fitting that this year’s anniversary show be called Continuum: The RedTree at 25.
I have been asked innumerable times over the years about the RedTree, about its origins and its meanings. The meaning of it has evolved over the years but its origins still reside in my desire to create my own niche with my work, something that could stand apart on its own without bringing instant comparison to the work of others. Work that would live according to its own rules if there were to be rules at all.
The kind of work where someone could recognize it from across a room and know it was part of my little world.
I realized this early on when I first began painting. Like most beginners, I would try to copy the work of artists I admired then compare them to see how I was progressing. It was a useful exercise and it helped me in many ways, teaching me about composition as well as different materials and techniques.
However, at a certain point I began to see that if I continued in this traditional manner, even if I branched out a bit, my work would always be subject to comparison which was something I wanted to avoid at all cost.
There is a saying, Comparison is the thief of joy, which in several forms has been blindly attributed to Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Teddy Roosevelt and others, though its true origins are unknown. Regardless of its origins, it rang true for me.
Nobody who believes they have done their best wants to be compared to someone else. I still dislike it when people try to take me out of my niche and compare my work to others. I also try to avoid comparison when talking with other artists about their work. I figure their work deserves to feel some of the joy that dwells beyond comparison.
I knew that in comparison I would inevitably come up short. I was never the best at anything. I was never the smartest kid in school nor the funniest, fastest, strongest, or the best at whatever category you might choose. There were many who were better at drawing and writing even in the little world I knew.
I was– and remain– average through and through.
However, I knew that, even being so middle of the road in all attributes, that there was something singular in me that deserved expression. I believe that this exists in all of us, if we can just uncover that thing that expresses who and what we are individually, beyond all comparison.
Nobody can be as good a you as you are yourself.
With that belief in mind, I set out to find my own thing.
It turned out to be the RedTree.
There’s a lot I could say about how it has taken on its own life over the decades or how the process that expresses it has changed, evolved, and grown over that same time. It has become a symbol with many meanings for many different people but remains, for me, a symbol for the true expression of our individual self.
The RedTree is the niche I have created, that place where I live now.
Where I belong.
Leave a comment