The Big Picture: All Life Is Connected

As I conceived these drawings I was intuitively selecting organisms to represent the symphony of collaboration and connection that is this small ecosystem at Narrows Botanical Gardens. As I look back over the series of drawings, they reflect the bigger picture of how each one of these organisms represented in the drawings plays a role in the whole ecosystem of the garden.

This corkscrew willow provides shade, modifies soil density with its roots and provides a haven for birds and insects. They all live in relationship to each other.

 

The mullein of this drawing grew under the canopy of the willow, sharing resources. When the mullein dies it will be composted back into the soil to enrich the resources available to the tree.

Mullein and Inula, 30" sq, mixed media on paper

Close by and with roots in close proximity, the trumpet honeysuckle grew on the fence right behind the tree.

 

Trumpet Honeysuckle and Chinese Redwood

These redwood trees, in a spectacular grove of five support among other organisms birds and insects that interact with the other plants in the garden.

Grove of Chinese Redwood trees

Chinese Redwood

In researching this project and consulting with botanists, Douglas Alamy's The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees was very informative. He delves into the complexity of the interdependent relationships of other organisms and oak trees. 

All life is connected and we can see these connections all around us. There is a beauty and rhythm to the natural world that is life affirming.