Mystery of Tree Trunks

Linocut No. 6 from my Structures from Nature series, cut and printed in my graphic studio in Malexander, with the forest right outside.

In this one the tree is recognisable — its branches like arms stretched upward, reaching for the light. That slow, persistent climb is how a tree builds the structure of its trunk: the bark thickening year by year into intricate fibres, meanders and curves, hollows and bulges. And when disaster strikes and a branch is lost, the bark heals the wound like a patient doctor. All of that life leaves its mark in the architecture.

You can imagine secrets hidden behind that thick bark — a shelter, a home for small creatures, the dwarves of old fairy tales. I carve the matrix for hours, listening to music, translating the language of nature into my own.

An original linocut. Signed.

Jolanta