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 The Grandmother Tree

an artist's journey through lockdown/release 2020-2021

The Grandmother Tree in Late Spring, 2020

It was a beautiful bright spring day with a full sun overhead when I heard the news: When the clock struck 2:00pm in less than 48 hours, France would be under a nationwide confinement (lockdown). Everyone  would have to be off the roads and in their homes or risk being fined. We learned henceforth we would only be allowed out for essential purposes listed on the government website and were restricted to a radius of 10 kilometers. No one could visit, and I could visit no one. I lived alone with my animals and marveled at the isolation that fell all around me. 

During France's roughly 18 months of varying degrees of confinement, I made a new friend. The Grandmother Tree stood in my backyard for a least a few centuries before we met, and I'm sure she has seen her share of history play out all around her. Her good company during the cycles of lockdown/ release was a constant source of inspiration and strength. I looked to her form. A dominate and defiant outline against both clear and stormy skies. The Grandmother Tree reminds that calm, constancy, and resiliency are also forces of nature that can that are resilient in the face of adverse weather. 

Through the camera lens, I decided to become her audience and observe her life in performance across the seasons and changing light. I kept a journal and some of these writings are included in the book. 

I wondered, what lessons I might learn through observation and photographing her seasonal withdraw and rebirth in spring? 

The result is a 32 archival pigment print portfolio and accompanying book. In these photographs and the subsequent book, you will see how the Grandmother Tree claims her power and flaunts her resiliency and natural beauty. From Spring of 2020 through Summer of 2021, this magnificent tree -- stalwart and ever present -- showed me what it meant to be unafraid, thrive, and resist.

To receive notification when the book is published and available for purchase, 

please email me. IturiSun@gmail.com 

            Thank you,

                                        Elisabeth Sunday