What would happen if the silvery moon fell in love with the trees?

Last October, I had a commission to create an altar shrine for a woman previously unknown to me. This was my first time working on such a project for someone who I did not have a relationship with. And it felt strange, and took a long time to move from concept to completion.

In our initial phone conversation, she told me that her spiritual practice really focused on nature, trees, and the moon, but not in any personified way. We talked a while about how she interacted with the trees in the light of the moon and what that meant to her.

The interior digital collage came easy. I got that done in about a month from that initial call. The exterior of the box was more difficult from a technical standpoint. I wanted to do a line drawing in silver of tree roots in the soil. But nothing came out looking quite right — just a bunch of squiggly lines. Then I stumbled upon a picture of a seedling showing the burst seed casing and the root system.

Then the box sat for months. It seemed to mock me as I could think of nothing for the interior left side. Every half baked idea fell flat. I felt guilty that I could not get this shrine done as winter moved into spring. Some days I even avoided going into my studio.

Then about a week ago, it hit me! The seed casing on the exterior looked like a crescent moon. The seedling could be the silvery love child produced by the union of the tree and moon in the collage. And what could be better for a shrine than “relics” of that union — silvered branches!

I worried that she would not like the piece, that it would not capture what she wanted at all. It had taken so much mental and spiritual labor to get this piece born — and I wasn’t sure if it was good enough. With dread in my stomach, I sent her pictures and got a quick reply.

The tree with the moon could have pulled right from my mind - it’s exactly the way I “see” trees at night … my breath caught in my throat and I got a bit weepy to see it with my physical eyes.

I’m going to call that success.