Our Overstory: Trees, Dryads and Myth

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.“ -  William Blake

Although I’ve always painted a few trees here and there, I have begun basing most of my newer creations on trees and dryads (tree spirits). Largely this has been inspired by reading myths about goddesses and the incredible book “The Overstory” by Richard Powers. It blew my mind in so many countless ways - educating, fascinating, enlightening and soul crunching.

My favorite tree is The California Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) with it’s gnarled and twisted growing habit. It can grow to be over 100 feet tall and can live for almost 300 years. Here in California, I’ve grown up around these beautiful live oaks which were scattered all over the golden hills and park areas. Over the years, I’ve noticed they are becoming much more scarce and it’s downright tragic how many of them are going, going, gone… In the past seven decades, more than 1 million acres have been lost due to land development, wildfire, disease, harvesting for firewood, and other forms of habitat destruction.

“You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes …”

Another fascinating book, which Powers pulled some science from, is Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees. - trees in the forest are social beings. They can count, learn and remember; nurse sick neighbors; warn each other of danger by sending electrical signals across a fungal network known as the “Wood Wide Web”; and, for reasons unknown, keep the ancient stumps of long-felled companions alive for centuries by feeding them a sugar solution through their roots.

About Dryads

Trees have long been thought to house spirits within wooded forests and groves throughout the world. Dryads are such spirits, members of the lesser deities known as nymphs in Greek mythology. They uniquely exist to watch over & care for the tree they are born with and in rare cases, groves and other creatures. Dryads are always female and usually inhabit oak, although they can also be found within ash, pine, poplar, apple and laurel trees.

Dryads are considered minor and mortal goddesses who have exceptionally long life spans but are deeply and supernaturally connected to the trees they call home, and are limited to the space of the tree or the forest the tree grows in.

Among the Dryads are several types, each associated with a different kind of tree. The most common are the Hamadryads, born within oak and poplar trees, along waterways or sacred tree groves. The Meliai, of ash trees, are ancient and were wed by men in the Silver Age before the first woman was created, and are believed to be the originators of mankind. Oreiades dwell in mountain pines and wild places. The Maliades and Epimeliad inhabit fruit or apple trees and are guardians of both trees and sheep. The Daphnaie are rare and inhabit laurel trees. Finally there are the Caryatids, which inhabit walnut trees.

Inspired Quotes

“Before it dies, a Douglas fir, half a millennium old, will send its storehouse of chemicals back down into its roots and back through its fungal partners, donating its riches to the community pool in a last will and testament. We might well call these ancient benefactors “giving trees”. - The Overstory by Richard Powers

“In this state alone, a third of the forested acres have died in the last six years.. Forests are failing due to many things - drought, fire, sudden oak death, gypsy moths, pine and engraver beetles, rust and plain old felling for farms and subdivisions. But theres always the same distal cause, and you know it and I know it and everyone alive who’s paying attention knows it. The year’s clocks are off by a month or two. Whole ecosystems are unraveling. Biologists are scared senseless.” - The Overstory by Richard Powers

“The Northwest has more miles of logging roads than public highways. More miles of logging road than streams. The country has enough to circle the Earth a dozen times. The cost of cutting them is tax-deductable, and the branches are growing faster than ever, as if spring had just sprung.” - The Overstory by Richard Powers

"The very idea of "managing" a forest in the first place is oxymoronic, because a forest is an ecosystem that is by definition self-managing." — The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich 

This then, is my way of paying humble homage to Earth’s magnificent trees and forests, before they are all gone…

Many of these works are for sale!

For details, please click on the “Botanical”, “Abstracted” or “More” sections of my Portfolio in the menu.