The Naked Lady
This is a Texas Madrone tree. It's often called The Naked Lady because as its black bark peels away, it reveals first a thin red bark and then as that peels away in turn, you find a smooth pale skin-like bark.
Besides the texture of the bark, my mother and I have often encountered the naked lady revealing herself in surprisingly bold ways.
What looks bruised and beaten here is actually just a part of the tree's life cycle.
I've been showing this photo as a part of my work for years. While I've always loved the curves and solid femininity of this tree, this particular image has also always left me feeling conflicted about loving its beauty but recoiling at what appear to be raw bruises.
Finally, I've found a way to channel and resolve my feelings by including it in the V-Day Hiroshima pool on flickr.
www.flickr.com/groups/vdayhiroshima/
If you're not familiar with V-Day, please read more about it on the group page.
Let's use our creativity together to bring about positive social change.
Imagine Peace,
Florence Nobuko Smith
posted by flogently on Wednesday, February 13, 2008
3 Comments:
I haven't seen one of those trees in 15 years. They were my favorite, along with loblolly pine, when I was a kid. Are you from Texas?
Yessir, from San Antonio. Loblolly pine? Are you from East Texas?
I'm glad you commented because that made me check out your blog. Love it -- time well spent procrastinating.
Born in Austin, but spent a lot of my childhood in East Texas. Left for a long time, then went back to Houston for graduate school. These days my only real connection to Texas is too much Lyle Lovett on the iPod. I'm glad you enjoyed my uneven efforts. You should do some more here. Maybe just post a photo with some commentary once a week or so?
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