Leaf art
Things come into existence, stay for a while, then leave again. Leaf art is inherently ephemeral. Maybe that’s what’s so compelling about it.
The trees in our backyard garden make lots of leaves – the river birch, kwanzaa cherry, maple, and photinia are masters at it. While our neighbors tend to have fewer trees, more sun-loving flowers, and grass for kids and dogs to play in their backyards, we have a vibrant shade forest and garden just for us and our cat.
The river birch and kwanza cherry are particularly energetic, tossing leaves on our gray stone patio with delight even in this early summer season. I imagine when the leaves wane from their vivid spring green to faded sun yellow, the wind shimmies them free as they sway back and forth to the ground.
I could sweep them up every day and have a small pile. Then it dawned on me recently that I ought to do more than sweep them up. Maybe they were telling me something, those windswept leaves shimmering on a palette of gray stone…
Gather
Gathering natural found objects sometimes feels delicate. I mean, it’s not in itself delicate, it’s just instead of taking less, I lean towards more, so there’s a delicate balance. My excitement overtakes me generally, and I don’t want to miss out on a good one. Like that leaf over there, and ooh, that one is nice, and I feel bad for that crumpled ochre-colored one so I’ll take that one, too.
So I have to check in with myself, and more importantly with the leaves, and gather only what we mutually agree that I can. Even if it is in my backyard where the leaves are abundant, and the rest will eventually be swept up or swept away.
Sunrays, Petal, Flower
I spent some time sorting the leaves, eventually choosing only the kwanza cherry leaves and arranging them from light to dark and small to large, mostly to see what was all there.
Slight breezes interspersed among the sun-dappled ground in which shapes, colors, layers, and textures were configured and reconfigured. In a process that I didn’t think much about, I arranged the leaves first in expanding sunrays:
Then a tear-shaped petal:
And finally a multi-layered circle flower:
I thought of Andy Goldsworthy, the famed land artist whose work I was first exposed to in the early 1990s and am still mesmerized by. His “site-specific installations involving natural materials and the passage of time… [he] crafts his installations out of rocks, ice, leaves, or branches, cognizant that the landscape will change, then carefully documents the ephemeral collaborations with nature through photography.” source
With my camera phone, I zoomed in close to see sunshine yellow leaves brushed with amber tints:
Coiled and crumpled ochre-imbued leaves with weathered looks:
Feathered-edged leaves pointing in symmetry:
Scatter
Crouched down, close to the ground, slowly arranging one leaf at a time, the time lapsed video (please watch!) doesn’t convey that it was actually a couple of hours in the afternoon (including set up, repositioning, multiple takes, and photographing). When I finished I sat on my deck, overlooking everything. The breeze was picking up and I knew what that meant. The wind that carried the leaves free to the ground was now starting to carry the leaves away.
The patterned order that was created was now returning to random disorder so quickly. Land art, including the leaf art, is inherently ephemeral. Maybe that’s what’s so compelling about it.
Things come into existence, stay for a while, then leave again. I sighed, my exhale like the wind leaving, followed by a rising inhale into existence once again, too.
*
Inhaling and exhaling...
LouLou
“Leaf art” was originally published as an exclusive post to my Ko-fi supporters in June 2023. Now it is public to you, too!
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