This is the Pine tree that I grew up looking at outside my bedroom window-- the same window that seemed like a portal to spiritual realms unknown which I learned from, explored, studied, and was both frightened by & deeply curious about. 
 
 
Always, there has been a tall Scots Pine that stands some 300 yards away from the front of the house-- in the forest dotted by Pine, Spruce, and Cedar. In this land lies Salamander Kingdom, a place where I would walk when I was a child where on warm rainy days the brilliant neon dots of Eastern Newts covered the darkened forest floor, seemingly illuminating it in a magical orange glow. Every tree here was awake, alive, and the forest seemed to sway and shake, producing awe-inspiring sights-- here, I also had magical encounters with coyotes, herds of deer, bears, and so much more. It was like this forest was deeply aware of me, and her inhabitants came to drop their messages before me.
 
 
That land always seemed like a mystery, a liminal space between worlds, and so enchanted by this place, I often found myself gazing out of this window, my mind taken somewhere far away, my heart wandering this forest, while the tall Scots Pine stood out above the others, proudly reaching its strange figure into the sky, stark against cool clouds & seemingly born of the veil of mystery itself. Like the ambassador of the Forest, she stands in her untamed pose. 
 
 
Over time this tree has been a background to so many memories-- deaths, new life, pets that lived and died, trees planted, moving away, coming home again, and so much more. No matter where I came and went to, eventually I would return to this bedroom window, Scots Pine standing tall, breathing in the wonders of being alive. 
 
 
I remember the woman who drove me to elementary school told me there was an Eagle's nest in that tree. Each time she came to pick me up, she told me about the Eagles she saw in the tree, flying to and from the nest. I never remembered seeing any Eagles, or even a nest over that way, but I think that maybe it was the Spirit showing her something, for I have no doubt this tree could show people many things, things that were for the individual to be inspired by...
 
 
Finally, I felt called to pick up the paintbrush and let this watercolor come together under my fingers. Except the tree asked that I not paint her exactly from life, because she could sense my tension as I approached the page, begging for some ultra-realistic spirit to seize me that I might paint a photorealistic depiction of her visage. 
She whispered, paint me as I am in your vision. Give me color, give me life, paint the magical realm from which I'm from. Paint me dancing across the page. Show me with impossible dreams emitting from my fingertips. Show me effervescent, untamed, beautiful, and mythical. 
 
So I did. 
 
And this is what she, Scots Pine, shows herself to me as. 
 
She was once flexible, and became sculpted by the wind. 
 
She's feminine, but strong & tough as an old woman. 
 
She's beautiful, and strikingly odd. 
 
She's not native to these forests, but she sets her roots down like she belongs. And space has been made for her to live. 
 
She's the summary of oddity, and yet I couldn't imagine her someplace else. 
 
So, Scots Pine, here's to you being an inspiration. 
 
You're now shared with the people-- might they see themselves in you, and be inspired to love what they see in the mirror a little more deeply. 
 
Thanks for looking. 
 
Lak'weh 
 
Original 9x11" watercolor printed on nice matte art paper for your home, your office, your spirit room. May this print bless you. Signed lower left "Lak'weh" and numbered. 10 limited prints available.