Hello dear friends….
Our topic is: A Tree
I will ask you if you have ever looked at a tree, a bird, a land, a water, a sea, or a landscape for a long time. This is not an hour or two hours as you think, but for days and even during seasons such as summer and winter. While looking at it, its color, lines, size, smallness, the area it covers, until that water slips away from our hands and even when a bird looks at you excitedly… Some of us smiled, some of us looked with curious eyes. Their duration does not exceed one hour in total.
However, if we look at a tree together, the thickness, color, light-dark tones of the trunk, the textural situation on it, the shape of the branches, the large-small shapes of the leaves, etc. things attract you. The tree next to it looks like a different tree, but you see that it also has a different trunk, branches, leaves. Although the third, fourth and other trees look like the same tree, they also appear very differently with their warm-cold colors and their tall, large and small forms. Did you know that there is a contrast between the flowers and leaves of trees? That is, if the forms of the leaves were ordinary, unattractive, the flowers could be very beautiful. Or vice versa, if the flowers are simple and ordinary, the leaves are wonderful this time. Another feature of these variability in nature is as follows: The color, which is the most color variety in nature, is green. With its light-darkness, its intensity-dimmer, its hot-cold state…
In addition to these, there are also fruits. Their shapes, large-small, sweet-salty-sour, colorful- colorless forms also carry these beauties. The appearance of a tree in summer, winter and other seasons is also different. There are trees that shed their leaves, and trees that never lose their leaves offer a unique, insatiable visual feast from yellow to orange or even red. Its shape can change along with its color. Sometimes it even smells different. We can’t stop ourselves from looking at these beautiful features. We watch for hours, even days. We call it a simple tree, but it is not, so there is more than just a tree. What we counted in a tree, if we include spiritual aspects, mythological situations, and also emotional aspects, I think we will not be able to finish counting, isn’t it? One actually means many, right? Multitude also represents one, right? Here again we have entered other subjects of philosophy. Biologically, who knows what will happen? If we look a little bit geologically, what will we encounter? It would take us two or three years to learn just a little bit of botanical science for the tree, wouldn’t it?
These examinations and observations all pave the way for us as human beings to see and understand the beauties. By enjoying them, we become sensitive people. Thus, we look at life, the environment, and people more meaningfully. This is exactly how the artist looks, questions, examines, paints or sculptures, reliefs, etc. whether linear, tonal or colored, observing and drawing many times. But the artist doesn’t just stop there, he draws those trees from various angles. Moreover, he further minimizes the complex-looking branches, leaves and flowers of these, and discusses whether they are saying the same thing. He simplifies further and enters abstractions that still seem like branches, carrying his image. Then a thought, an idea formed from these. Multitude, oneness, to resemble but not to be the same; to be opposite each other but not to be separated from it; in other words, the branches, leaves, and flowers of this tree cause thoughts of his own in the artist’s mind. From here, the artist offers a whole new perspective to the world. From a simple tree, great ideas can be born. That’s what art is anyway; It’s a simple thing that becomes extraordinary. This idea turns into a philosophy. Stream, style or thoughts, ideas emerge. The artist’s point of view, combined with the knowledge and experience
he has acquired before, causes situations such as beyond his age to appear. When artists unite with the past, their own eras and philosophies of life, the idea of tomorrow emerges. Dear friends, just when you look deeper into a tree, your horizons expand, causing you to look at life more beautifully. What serves to make sense of the things we look at depends on whether you are full or not. Even when I paint with trees, every tree seems interesting and beautiful to me because I always act like this. It’s something I enjoy. That’s why life has meaning for me. I want you to understand that just looking at a tree is not a straight pleasure. As you look at it, I
am absolutely sure that it will help you develop different feelings and thoughts. Of course, imagine that you are doing these situations for a bird again. Imagine you do this for the land; Imagine seeing very different soil samples all over the world in Turkey, America, Peru, Italy, China, etc. Let’s imagine that we are looking at water in the same way. For example, water is colorless. But the color of water can occur in any color. How does the color of the water appear at sunrise or sunset? You can develop as much as you want. Wherever you turn your head, there is an object or material that looks beautiful. It stands there. It’s waiting for you to go and get it. It is waiting for you to study it and to improve yourself and enjoy it. Moreover, it causes you to derive a worldview from it. That’s how it is, don’t walk away by calling it a simple tree. Imagine that it has all the riches in it and begin to examine it. If you take good care of even simple things in the new year, the new year will start to offer you good things. These efforts reveal a system of values between you and life, you choose what you want and continue to be happy. HAPPY NEW YEAR…
Murat Mete AYĞAR
