DIAGRAM :: Leila Philip and Garth Evans

SHAGBARK & NECESSARY ANGEL

Leila Philip and Garth Evans

SHAGBARK

Thou hast arranged all things by measure and number and weight
—Wisdom 11:20

Name		Shagbark hickory Juglandaceae Carya symbol CAOV2
Leaf		alternate pinnately compound, 8-14 inches with 5 sometimes 7 leaflets lateral leaflets are obovate to lanceolate terminal leaflets are much larger than the laterals, margins serrate and ciliate, rachis stout and mostly glabrous, green above, paler below
Flower		monoecious; male flowers are yellow-green catkins hanging in 3's, 2 to 3 inches long; females are very short in clusters at the end of branches, both appear in spring.
Fruit		nearly round, 1 1/2 to 2 inches, with a very thick husk; nut is distinctly 4-ribbed, and the seed is sweet and delicious; maturing in fall.
Twig		stout and usually tomentose, but may be somewhat pubescent near terminal bud, numerous lighter lenticels; leaf scars raised, 3-lobed to semicircular— (best described as a "monkey face"); terminal bud brown, pubescent, covered with 3 to 4 brown scales, more elongated than other hickories.
Bark		At first, smooth and gray, later broken into long, wide plates attached at the middle, curving away from the trunk resulting in a coarsely shaggy appearance.
Form		A tall tree reaching over 120 feet, with a straight trunk and an open round to oblong crown.

Notes for the casual observer: looks like Shellbark hickory, Red hickory, Mockernut and Pignut hickory.

Garth made these watercolors during a twelve-month period in his studio, which looks into the woods in the quiet corner of Connecticut:

I was thinking about polarities and contrasts, about how disparate things can come together to make something new. I was thinking about the man-made world and about the natural world, about what is natural and what is artificial, what is organic and what is geometric.

Leila wrote these poems in the same quiet corner of Connecticut during the same twelve-month period that Garth was making the watercolors:

Each poem began with an observation of the natural world. I was thinking about how we locate ourselves where we live, what we bring to that relationship and what we take away. I was thinking of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s call to “see” the ordinary landscapes around us as a means of insight, delight and self-awareness

Water Rising began with our desire to collaborate on a creative project. We started in the spring. Each of us made works in genres that were not central to our primary practice. Garth is a sculptor, and for twelve months, made watercolors. Leila writes book length prose, and for twelve months, wrote poems. We did not want the writing to illustrate the images, or the images to illustrate the writing so we worked independently. Only when the twelve month time period was over, did we bring the watercolors and the poems together to see what connections had appeared. We were surprised, amazed, and delighted.

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NECESSARY ANGEL