Rise of the Tree-Men

This one's different, usually I have at least part of the sky in my composition, but nope not here. It's facing strait down toward the ground as though the viewer is lodged in the trees- that's exactly the effect I wanted...

We are stepping back in time here to when I was 17 years old. I had a variety of ideas flowing into me, cramming their way around other ideas, and I could not help to express. image after image would present itself to me in all its peculiar glory and I found it self-betrayal to not let it live on, only to die with the fading of memory as it would have a lack of form. Most often I would have no idea what these surreal images meant to me, but given thought and time I would come to understand, as does any viewer of my art, what many of them meant. subconsciously our mind provides us with symbols for the thoughts and feelings we have and, like dreams, we can learn their significance. we just have to let them speak, giving them a voice to tell their strange, or perhaps familiar, story.

OK I got carried away... here's what this particular piece means to me:
Trees naturally reach upward toward the sun to receive of its light. But an interesting fact remains- they are also woven into the earth as thousands of roots dig their way around rocks and soil soaking up water making the trees heavier and more grounded. "Up or down?" they may question, or rather "Should I be content with the earth and all the life I gain through it, or should I stretch upward and receive of the sky and all its goodness?" Given time the weather changes, and each appendage grows cold and tired. Their leaves fall one by one, and then by the dozens as the chilled winds carry them away, also stretching and bending the trees spines in a most uncomfortable way. "Time is running out," they reason, "I am weak and dying and have not been content in either direction!" But as the seasons change again and again they understand that each time they loose leaves they eventually gain even more back. they realize, "I am not dying when the winter comes- I'm living!" and as they reach in every direction, becoming taller, stronger and deeper there comes a day that they realize, "because of my roots I am full, because of the wind i am strong and because of the sun I am young and green again and again and again -Now I am content reaching in every good direction" This process continues all our lives. May we begin to learn of its lessons early on. (the discomfort on their faces demonstraits the time in their lives before they realized these truths)