"Tree II: Breath of Humanity" artists breathe life into their art making through a deep reverence for nature...
- Jennifer Gillia Cutshall
- 6 hours ago
- 11 min read
"My inspiration here is the Bodhi tree. To me, this tree is a symbol of all life, the universality of being. Everything is part of everything. This is one of a series of 12 fantastical mandala drawings of this tree or its aspects of earth, air, fire and water."
Betty Winkler
HUI LI
"My first visit to the Blue Mountains was in 1990. Although it was not as breathtaking as my first visit to the Yellow Mountains in 1976, it was deeply impressive and extraordinarily meaningful for me, who had just arrived in the Southern Hemisphere, far from my homeland. The Three Sisters, a famous peak in the Blue Mountains, has stories from the Aboriginal people and is nearly a thousand meters high. Thanks to its unique sandstone plateau, canyon landforms, and eucalyptus forest ecosystem, it has been included in the World Natural Heritage List. The blue color of the Blue Mountains comes from eucalyptus oil. The leaves of a large number of eucalyptus trees release volatile eucalyptus oil. When these oil droplets spread in the air and refract and scatter sunlight, they form a light blue mist that envelops the mountains, giving the Blue Mountains their unique blue appearance. This is also one of the reasons why bushfires are
easily caused.
In the view of “looking down on all the mountains as small,” the contrast between
the black rocks and white clouds, and the embellishment of the peculiar pines and strange rocks, are all natural Chinese ink wash paintings. At that time, I
suddenly understood the connotation of the relationship between the cultural tradition of Chinese painting and the geographical environment."
Hui Li
ANAMARIE LIDDELL
"The passion to connect to the cycles and interwoven intimacy with the environment within which I live is potent and leads to creating drawings that are a meditative treatment of nature’s treasures. Engaging in the physicality of the experience, the mark making is gestural and intricate resulting in a wide range of tones that vibrate energy, reminiscent of the underlying forces of nature itself. The intense observation of trees transforms something familiar into a meditation on time, decay, and transformation."
AnaMarie Liddell
DAVID CARMACK LEWIS
"Back when I painted figures, they mostly ended up as some version of self portraiture. Now, when I paint trees, the same thing happens. Something of myself emerges in the act of painting them. It's not intentional. That's just how it goes. Art is a mirror to the world, showing it to you from a different perspective. But I think for the artist, or for this artist anyway, the world also becomes a mirror to the self. A funhouse mirror sometimes. And I don't always like what I see, but I don't shy away from it either."
David Carmack Lewis
SUSAN MAKOV
"My forests are deciduous leaves dropping during drought, and skeletal evergreens losing needles to fire and pine bark beetles. You can see a brown-grey fog where green branches recently stood. Structures of trees appear to resemble a type of “forest calligraphy”. Beautiful in their visual appearance with colors and shapes of vines and branches creating patterns yet indicating devastation from natural and manmade events in the wilderness. Landscapes of beauty or human debris?"
Susan Makov
YUKIO ITO
"Winter reveals something I often miss in other seasons. Bare trees no longer seem rooted in silence; they become dancers, each with a distinct gesture. Seeing them this way, reminds me that trees are not distant symbols of nature but quiet neighbors, sharing the same fragile breath of life as we do."
Yukio Ito
JUDITH PECK
"I am obsessed with a grand old sycamore living along a path I frequent. I wanted to paint its’ dignity and majesty as well the small deaths and growth, the resilience that is apparent in the face of drought, flooding, erosion, pollution and wind conditions. The up-close view of the roots of this mighty sycamore indicates how you might experience this tree as you walk the along the trail. I see this tree as a microcosm of the earth as well as an allegory of our lives. I often depict a model interacting with the tree, trying to mirror its shape, availing its protection, and generally connecting with the power of its form. I believe this series of paintings inspire a reverence for the care of our environment and become an allegory for social issues, the climate crisis or at the very least, can offer viewers a way to connect and appreciate art."
Judith Peck
JULIE JOHNSON
"Birch trees represent thresholds between life, death and rebirth. The last living branches of a dying birch embody this sculptural random weave vessel. Now, suspended between life and death, they emit their final breath, as delicate bones dance above them at the threshold."
Julie Johnson
ALMA MUELLER
From a poem “A Timbered Choir” by Wendell Berry:
“Slowly, slowly, they return
To the small woodland let alone:
Great trees, outspreading and upright,
Apostles of the living light.”
Life Force
(a photo series created by Alma Mueller)
Forests anchor our world. Earth and Sky connect.
Their communities create soil and gift earth’s air with life giving oxygen.
With reverence the quest to capture a moment of their greatness and Ancient Wisdom continues.
SUZE WOOLF
"I might say “the hot air of humanity” since both my portraits of burned trees and my bark beetle-inspired artist books are prompted by climate crisis, profoundly obvious to me in forests. I like to say they are the same subject matter, they just look completely different. Trees affected by heat and drought burn more readily; heat- and drought-stressed trees are equally more vulnerable to destructive species of bark beetles."
Suze Woolf
DEBRA DISMAN
The Giving Tree and Us
-debra disman
July, 2026
Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree is about unconditional love and the joy of giving, which I feel describes trees perfectly. They ask for nothing except an environment that does not destroy them. Can we even give them that? Silverstein describes a tree who loves a boy and gives him everything. I feel one of the most important lines in the book expresses reciprocity: “And the boy loved the tree.......very much. And the tree was happy.”
BRIGITTE B BURCKHARDT
"An image came to my mind instantly. A huge Forest breathing as if the Forest was human. Then I thought but it is so. How could we breathe without Trees?
We are connected forever and thus cherishing them like we should all living beings is essential to Life on earth. Trees are family."
Brigitte B Burckhardt
BECKY EDDY
"When I’m surrounded by trees I’m shrouded in belonging and connection. Very much like the title of my drawing “Flesh & Blood ll”, they
are just being and alive, growing toward light. Something we should aspire to."
Becky Eddy
“Today I’m thinking about trees and how beautiful they are. And how important they are.”
David Lynch
MELISSA ZANE
"I have a deep connection to nature and trees...
I've always been drawn to aspen trees because they remind me that things aren't always what they seem. What appears to be a grove of separate trees is actually a single living organism connected underground by a shared root system. That idea inspired Illuminated Aspen Trees—a reflection on our own unseen connections and the quiet strength we find in one another."
Melissa Zane
CATHERINE EATON SKINNER
We belong to the rhythms of the forests, the waters,
the earth, the sky and the light.
My work with trees
standing roots
outstretched branches
foretold the passing
of my father
believer of legacy
I wish for another moment
sharing tea
those quiet times
Sunday mornings
the two of us
and the dogs
Tears to your passing
be joyous
in what comes
to you the unexpected.
I will see you
in another lifetime
CE Skinner
LEONARD GRECO
"In nearly every painting I’ve painted over the many years there are trees.
If I am painting in a sylvan setting that would be obvious, fir trees, dense forests, undergrowth and broken branches and in desert climes all manner of Joshua trees, prickly pears and noble Saguaros.
Trees and branches sprout in the most unlikely places as well; in the Underworld they twist about in desiccated rhythms and branches can be found sprouting from the pates of Greenfolk. Even at the Lord’s crucifixion I take the phrase “hung upon a tree” quite literally, the Lamb hung upon an oak. There is something terribly moving when imagining a living tree cradling the broken Christ; like Orpheus when even the trees, moved by his suffering, pulled themselves up by their roots and lumber over to witness his grave sorrow.
However, my favorite arboreal device is the stumped tree, forsaken and forlorn yet in a defiant spirit of rebirth branches sprout forth from the mutilated root. It’s a beautifully symbolic image reminding us all of the Eternal Cycle, of birth and life and death and then renewal.
It never fails to inspire me."
Leonard Greco
SHARON REEBER
When I among the Trees
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,“and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
MARGARITA MAROCHKINA
"Everyone admires nature, yet the artist labors to understand its beauty and convey their own vision to the viewer. I gaze with delight and wonder at every single tree, seeing its unique character and its inextricable bond with the world around it. Each tree is a vast world: a home for animals and birds, a source of clean air for people and wildlife, a manifestation of the Divine beauty of creation—simply life itself."
Margarita Marochkina
STEPHEN NOWICKI
"As a physician, I am often buried in technology and pulled from nature’s rhythms. The forest restores me. Hiking through Idaho after the Wapiti Fire, I found charred trunks rising against blue sky while electric green and purple burst from blackened earth. That image — devastation and rebirth coexisting — mirrors what I witness in my patients daily. Trees breathe hope into humanity. My ceramic work keeps that hope alive when I cannot reach the forest."
Stephen Nowicki
TABBY IVY
“If you look deeply enough at any object, any story, any song - no matter how familiar- you will find the rest of the world”
Yo Yo Ma
LIZ THORESON
"If you don't know how, observe the phenomena of nature, they will give you clear answers and inspiration."
Nikola Tesla
JON FERARO
"After surviving cancer, I was given a second chance to breathe. Around the same time, I watched my mother overcome her own profound adversity, and the tree became a quiet symbol of our relationship—rooted, weathered, and still reaching upward. The Gilded Abyss grew organically through layers of paint, much like the layers of our lives. The golden water represents something more precious than wealth: the love, resilience, and grace that sustain a family. Sometimes the deepest roots grow in the darkest places."
Jon Feraro
JOHN DIEPHOUSE
"Walking in nature among the trees, whether in a natural forest or a city park, brings to me a sense of peace, order and community. We exist in a symbiotic relationship with trees, mutually depending on the life-giving oxygen we breathe and our obligation to be good stewards of the land, protecting and nurturing that which gives us both life."
John Diephouse
MARY JANE TENERELLI
"Trees, sky, flowers, landscapes, in all seasons, inspire me. Trees have been a conduit to the spiritual since childhood. The silent majesty, their place in the sky, and the beauty of branches, bare or flowering, make me want to create. The woods at evening or near evening symbolize mystery to me, an invitation to move forward into the tangled unknown in hopes of a pathway into the light. My photo Flowering Magnolia is a kind of light in the dark too, symbol of hope."
Mary Jane Tenerelli
GAIL MORRISON
"Trees – the most regal and beautiful beings on the land! They feed us, provide oxygen, communicate among themselves and others through their ever-questing roots, provide homes and shelter to countless other beings, sequester and store carbon dioxide, nourish the soil and all its microorganisms, translate the movement of the wind into susurrating – or terrifying - sounds, inspire and uplift our souls with their beauty and confident presence."
Gail Morrison
BECKY CHAPMAN
"We are born of Nature, Nature is in our DNA. However, over the last few generations we have culturally disconnected from those moorings. We have become morally adrift, a poverty in our soul. To reclaim our humanity, we must reconnect with our Mother. I want my art to be a spark of inspiration to reclaim that quiet, slow Magic that infused the lives of our ancestors with reverence for Nature."
Becky Chapman
KRISTI EKERN
"I grew up spending my summers in the northern Minnesota forest. Trees have always drawn me in with their mystical power. They stand so tall and watch over us as time slowly passes, silently fading into the background. I never plan my art but so many of my pieces are created around trees."
Kristi Ekern
LAURIE SCHIRMER CARPENTER
"While the breath of this tree is stilled forever it still perseveres, as this Sentinel does, by preventing erosion and serving as a landmark before being completely absorbed into the earth."
Laurie Schirmer Carpenter
CRAIG COMPTON
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
John Muir
FABIENNE SOWA-DOBKOWSKI
"Trees have always felt like living companions—admired, cherished, and woven into the landscapes I call home. Even as a child, I was moved by Idéfix in the Astérix and Obélix stories, who became deeply upset whenever a tree was uprooted. The Poetics of Fire II reflects that enduring connection: trees emerging through smoke and light, fragile yet resilient, reminding us that humanity’s breath is inseparable from theirs."
Fabienne Sowa - Dobkowski
JANNAH ATKINS
"As our oldest collaborators, trees embody memory, resilience, and reciprocity. They transform light into breath, shelter countless lives, and demonstrate the interconnectedness of all living things. My work grows from ecological relationships, loss, resilience, and renewal. Verum Ultium's theme, "TREE: Breath of Humanity" resonates deeply with the ecological narratives that shape my work, revealing our fragile interdependence with the living world and the urgent need for ecological restoration."
Jannah Atkins
PATI HAYS
"I've had a deep connection with nature since childhood, spending hours in the forests where I grew up. In some countries ancient trees are revered. In these deeply troubling times of global warming and climate change, fires are raging not only here, in North America, but in other countries as well, destroying vast tracts of forest, the lungs of our planet. I hope this exhibit will instill a renewed commitment to protecting our forests as well those who dwell in them."
Pati Hays
