The Curator’s Journal began publishing the last Friday in March, 2022. That means this week's entry brings us around full circle and we now officially close out the first year of the course. Here at the juncture where one year ends and another is about to begin, it seems opportune to pause a moment and take in the scenery, looking back at where we've been and surveying what might be ahead.
Read MoreI was traveling with my friend John Geanangel, and we decided we’d make the best of the situation as long as we were already out there, so we toured around some. Our original plans were centered on trees so we kept that as the theme of the road trip.
Read MoreAll old trees have struggled to some extent, because life is as full of hazard and difficulty for trees as it is for people, and the longer one sticks around the more it wears on that individual, and the more that individual wears the effects of it. Time takes its toll. The little everyday struggles of life add up.
Read MoreAlong with an appreciation of the virtues of native plant material came a growing appreciation of the native landscape in which those plants originated. And in contemplating the natural native example, ideas about the cultivated landscape began to change. Now you can also find more naturalistic gardens featuring plants native to the region where the garden exists.
Read MoreHow did age get to be such a big part of people's general conception of bonsai? There are bonsai trees that are authentically hundreds of years old, and that sort of information makes an impression. People are fascinated by longevity, particularly if the age is beyond that which any person might expect to attain in a lifetime.
Read MoreTrees are and always have been a subject of heightened awareness for me, and so I notice them. I notice them every day wherever I happen to be, and the notice is automatic, not necessarily conscious. I think about trees a lot, too, but often when I’m looking at them my response has more to do with feelings than words, emotion rather than intellect.
Read MoreTrees, like human beings and all the rest of organic life, are not only subject to stress but are actually shaped by it. Think of a tree limb. A big, powerful, undulating tree limb is the product of a life of stress — the stress of reaching out to hold its leaves in position to access sunlight, and to hold them that way despite their weight and the weight of the limb itself against the force of gravity.
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