ASH
My various college biology + ecology classes have been visiting Chance Creek for our projects and field trips, and there's a little clearing full of sticks and tall grass where these giant ash tree skeletons stand.
Forest clearings in general freak me out quite a bit, so there is something very uniquely unsettling about this dead ash grove that's hard to pin down with words. I think, if I didn't know more about the place, the uncertainty of their deaths would be very haunting.
Knowing about the horrible reality of the emerald ash borer makes me feel privy to the situation, and the place feels more like a sentimental graveyard. I never knew them in life, and now the site of their death has become a rat race of grasses and other plants.
The succession of life in the face of destruction is not only beautiful, but hopeful. Yet I still feel like it's almost a little disrespectful to the empty husks that still stand there.
Semi-edgy thoughts aside, I saw a lot of cool stuff at that site and wanted to draw it. I wanted to do something with restricted colors, try out some tips I had come across online, and finish the piece relatively quick, in one sitting. This took me two hours and I had a lot of fun with it, so I count it as a success.
