I finished my tiny sketchbook the morning of the 14th February – St Valentine’s Day, though instead of a bunch of red roses I was gifted with a paint and varnish scraper.
I drove into town to post my book off to New York that afternoon. I was relieved it fit back into the tiny envelope it came in, as the eco printing process swells the paper. For once, I wasn’t racing right up to the deadline; there was still a whole 24 hours remaining.
There were themes to choose from in undertaking this project. I chose Tiny Maps (well, I would, wouldn’t I?) And I called the sketchbook, Tiny Maps of Trees. Appropriate, as the eco prints were of leaves and as in the leaf, so in the tree.
Which is an adulteration of a quote As it is above, so it is below; or: As above, so below, derived from a passage in the Emerald Tablet (attributed to Hermes Trismegistus or Pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana). I’ve already written about my friend Hermes. It’s near the end of the blog post so you can skid past the first bit about the ghost-infested fridge.
I’ve added a description of Tiny Maps of Trees to my personal page at The Sketchbook Project. Here’s the final paragraph:
Just as there are no two leaves alike, there are no two people alike; under pressure, one individual will react differently to another. So the leaf is also a metaphor. My ‘Little Maps of Trees’ can also stand for ‘Little Maps of People’. A tree cannot stay healthy without its specific, individual leaves; society cannot stay healthy without its specific, individual people.
I’ve made a slideshow of Tiny Maps of Trees. It’s on my art web site: www.annisikartworks.com
Make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee and a chocolate biscuit or twenty and enjoy.
Yippie! A certain satisfaction in a job well done and also a little sadness in letting such a love go. It will travel well, you’ll see. The poem you included, shaped like a leaf, is a beauty too!
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Thanks, Petru. Yes, you’re right about letting it go. It is the same with any artwork. I don’t know about the poem. I will have to explore where that came from. 🙂
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