In my grandmother’s house there was an ever present trove of fairy tale and folklore books to read.  Their pages were soft and thin from the many youthful fingers that had turned pages before me.  Through these stories I entered powerful forests full of light and darkness, peopled by tree goddesses, witches and sorcerers.  The trees always fascinated me.

In our yard there was a maple tree who was a towering presence long before we bought the house.  She dominated our back yard, providing shade for us and a jungle gym of branches for the squirrels and birds.  But she was dying, emptying out from inside.  A family of raccoons moved in.  The limbs that fell were hollow (my husband turned some into birdhouses).  We were about to lose our lovely tree.

I remembered those folk tale trees and tried to image our aging maple among them.  I made these images to evoke illustrations for such a story — inspired by loss, nostalgia, dreams and possibilities.  It’s a tale of long ago and far away but full of the here and now.