A Charmed Life

Have you ever wondered about the lives of trees? Well I have. If you have ever looked at my Etsy shop, you would see I have a bit of a tree fixation. Think about it. As a seed you get to fly through the air, once you find the perfect piece of real estate (no closing costs) you set down your roots and start your upward climb. You get to sleep through the winter and wake to spring where you can show off your new spring colors. Your friends are birds, squirrels, butterflies and bees. A charmed life indeed.

Well I decided to create a little wall art homage to the charmed life of a tree. The PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) has a monthly challenge and this month was a mixed media challenge, so it was the perfect time to bring my little tree to life. I have had the idea of this tree in my head for a while. I love to recycle boxes into shadow boxes (great for the trees), so that's where I started. I thought using the recycled boxes was also a little statement about recycling and saving trees which only added to the theme. I wanted the tree to be coming out of the box portion of the shadow box with it's roots and branches reaching out. The tree ended up a bit bigger than I planned with only it's trunk sitting in the box, but I still like how it turned out. I added the charms to represent the creatures that live in the trees as well as the leaves and blossoms. The charms are twofold in that they are in fact charms which is clever with the title of the piece, but also that each one represents something special to the tree. I used the vintage sheet music as a background to represent the sweet music of the birds that the trees wake to each morning and since the tree lives a charmed life, the sky is blue and the grass is forever green.

A second meaning to this piece is about gratitude. As with most people, I tend to forget all the blessings that I have in life and only focus on the things that go wrong. A tree doesn't do this. It keeps reaching toward the sky no matter what happens to it. Have you ever seen trees who are curled or bent because of a strangling vine or another obstruction? They persevere despite the set backs and obstacles. So the tree is a reminder that no matter what our struggles, we too live a charmed life.

I love the way the piece turned out and I won't be adding it my Etsy shop. It will have a home in my kitchen where I can see it everyday and be reminded that I too live a charmed life.