larch needles newsletter 4/1
prologue
as you can see from the photo above, mid-march marked the first emergence of the larch needles in my neighborhood. for those who don't know, larch is a genus of conifer trees, all of whom are deciduous - meaning they shed their leaves (which happen to be needles) each autumn and grow back new ones each spring. since they're not evergreen, they lack the tough, sturdy needles of most conifers, and instead have very soft and supple foliage. to me, there's something very enchanting about this plant, which defies our binaristic assumptions about nature. there's nothing intrinsically evergreen about conifers, nor anything intrinsically deciduous about hardwoods. these are flawed categories we have created for convenience. the larch (specifically the american larch, or tamarack, larix laricina) is also fascinating to me on an aesthetic level. the older specimens (not like the young tree picture here) are strikingly rugged and gnarled, encrusted with lichens, which results in a beautiful contrast against the soft, glowing-green needles. tamaracks are hardy trees, and can survive in environments where few other trees can, such as acidic peat bogs. in such places, they often take on bizarre and eccentric shapes, with many of the branches bare and skeletal. i have a very vivid memory of seeing one in a bog in the adirondacks, which stood like a needle in a pincushion, stuck at an angle in the waterlogged earth, and completely leafless except for a single plume of green foliage halfway up the trunk. up close, some branches are so rich with detail, i can easily imagine shrinking myself down to flea-size and wandering through their alien forests. it is a tree that contains worlds.
recent work
3/2, spirit flow
3/5, mycelium
i absolutely love this dramatic placement. took a while to get the sharpie drawing just right, but it was worth it
3/6, river
this piece was derived from taking the meandering shapes i've used for chasm pieces, and replacing the strata texture with flowing, liquid linework. very fun!
3/9, spirit flow
3/11, spirit flow
3/16, rootlet
small and fast freehand - took about 1.5 hours in total. normally i wouldn't do something this small - it only makes sense when i'm able to fit two short appointments in the same day, and things rarely work out that way. this was part of a joint appointment that two clients made together.
3/16, spirit flow
notable in that the droplets are flowing downward, which i never thought do to until the client asked.
3/20, mycelium
first session of two for an ambitious torso piece. it was a lot of fun using the old tattoo as a sort of scaffolding for the freehand drawing.
3/24, replication
i really didn't know what this was when i drew it - only after doing this tattoo did i realize that it's quite reminiscent of dna strands splitting apart. i'm thrilled with how this turned out and i look forward to doing more with this motif!
3/26, assemblage
here's another thing i didn't know the exact nature of (and still don't) - but that's what's fun about abstract art! i was thinking mostly about wires, circuitry, and antennae when drawing this, but it also has a sort of landscape quality.
booking
april: my books for this month are still open, and i can accommodate about four more appointments.
may: as per usual, i am now opening my books for the following month!
epilogue
thank you so much for reading! if you’d like to book an appointment, you can begin by submitting a booking form here (and read the info here if you haven’t already). until next time!
-eva