Twenty-second Connection: A Recognizable Tree and a Fictional Tree

Awkwardly rooted in the ground, or at least in the bottom edge of the paper, the number one stands covered in bark at the vertical center of this drawing, Lucky One (Luck E1)©2011. Something about the e’s scale, position and how it fits into a circle reminds me now of the Department of Defense Fallout Shelter symbol. I remember it as a common but mysterious graphic black and yellow sign marking the entrances to public buildings during my childhood in the 1960s. The rest of the composition is visible behind the e, but as the e appears to be the top layer, it marks everything behind and beyond it. The e also subtly divides the drawing horizontally into a dark sky/space top and a turquoise blue water bottom. Playing with echoes of the biblical trees of life and knowledge, a recognizable tree and a fictional tree grow underwater into the composition from the left and right bottom corners; each tree is significant and has its own separate hill or maybe its own sphere.