Becoming an Apple, for Others to Eat

23 March 2010, pencils, crayons and photo work

This painting shows the transformation processes from seed to fruit – but not in the way you know them with a tree: The apple is bigger than the tree.

I started with photos I had taken some time ago of a huge tree in a nearby park, of an apple, and that of an apple flower.

The roots take the vital energy from the ground and the leaves from space. The ground is part of our globe and the vital energy belongs to the vastness of the energetic ocean. The seed in the trunk receives its nourishment from the ground and grows through the stem to expand through the branches. The flower is the most subtle part of the tree. When it has reached its fruition, it brings forth the fruit. The apple, however, is not used by the tree, but by those who take it, sell it, or give it to others to eat. So the apple tree is a symbol of the selfless distribution of its fruits. And when we share the fruits of our doing the circle completes.