A Conversation in Tree Stencils

Plus the close of Art Drop #8.

Have you noticed any tree stencils in the last week? We saw a great one driving north on Route 17 in Paramus, NJ on the side of a Lenscrafters building – “oh, let’s remember that.” We were in a rush going up to Massachusetts to check in on the construction of our new home and studio, so we took a mental note of the time and resolved to return there soon. Happily, photographs of tree stencils came our way anyway thanks to the community of photographers and visual artists on Substack. Let’s get to it!

LIGHT + TREE + STRUCTURE = TREE STENCIL

Our recent art drop about tree stencils spurred several responses that we are delighted to share with you here, kicking it off with Michela Griffith who shared this in-camera multiple exposure of a plane tree in Portugal.

Photograph by Michela Griffith

I love the textures and layering at play here, with that mottled effect of shadows and light so reminiscent of a plane tree’s distinctive bark pattern.

The next tree stencil to come our way is from Josh Weinberg sharing a photograph from his series Seeing Light where he captures glimpses of sunlight making its way into his house in a myriad of ways.

Photograph by Josh Weinberg

After reading our previous newsletter, Kathryn Vercillo found herself noticing these shadows – I love how the shadows smooth out the twigs that cast them, giving them less organic and more geometric qualities.

Photograph by Kathryn Vercillo

And lastly we heard from Xavi Buendia pointing us in the direction of Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s excellent Paisaje inventado (Invented Landscape) taken in Mexico in 1972. Do click that link and treat yourself to a gorgeous tree stencil from the past! In The New York Times obituary for Manual Álvarez Bravo (who died in 2002 at 100 years old) the curator of photographs at the Getty, Weston Naef, said of Álvarez Bravo that “almost all of his greatest pictures were made within 100 miles of his home” in Mexico City.

It’s an easy trap to glamorize other locales and think we’d take better pictures if we were elsewhere. Though maybe Mexico City just really is that visually rich? If Xavi Buendia’s photograph below is any indication, Tom and I would probably have a field day there with our cameras.

Photograph by Xavi Buendia

Xavi took this photograph at Casa Gilardi in Mexico City designed by Luis Barragán. In our previous newsletter I wondered if architects ever design around tree stencils to take advantage of how the tree’s shadows would play on the structure and deftly Barragán did exactly that, conceiving of Casa Gilardi’s design around an existing jacaranda tree. The tree’s shadow is just one of many ways that the tree continues to converse with the architecture of the home it shares space with. I hope you’ll read more about it and see Xavi’s photographs of the Casa Gilardi here.

ART DROP #8 CLOSING

So we’d like to thank Michela, Josh, Kathryn and Xavi for their contributions and thoughtful responses. With that we’ll be closing our art drop tomorrow night. Prints of Behind the Supermarket will only be available until January 9, 2024 at midnight EST with no plans for further production for at least a year.

Behind the Supermarket by Diana Pappas

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back in touch later this month with a new studio update and maybe even a photograph of that tree stencil on the side of the Lenscrafters.

Photograph by Diana Pappas from our Northumberland in Winter story.

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