Local Eco-Art Initiative Celebrates Manhattan’s Oldest Tree

By Anthony J. Paradiso

“Tree Wonder Washington Square Park” is an eco-art initiative that aims to bring forth the wonder of nature through a study that celebrates the ecology of the area. The area is the northwest corner of Washington Square Park where an English Elm tree has stood for more than 300 years.

The tree is the subject of an initiative created by local visual artist, Kristin Jones and urban forester Georgia Silvera Seamans, director of Washington Square Park Eco Projects and founder of Local Nature Lab. The two have collaborated on hosting public drawing sessions at the base of the English Elm every Sunday in the Spring and Fall for the past three years. Since the beginning, thousands of park visitors or passersby have stopped to look up at the tree, wonder and draw.

Each session is led by an artist who, according to Washington Square Park Eco Projects, “shares drawing techniques with participants or inspires them with prompts to draw from.” The sessions have become popular as Tree Wonder’s fact sheet says, “on average, more than 200 people stop to observe the tree and more than 50 stop to draw.” Jones and her team members can be identified by the aprons they wear which have a silhouette of the English Elm on them. The initiative has been run by volunteers to this point. For the past year Madison Markham has joined Tree Wonder as the project manager and artists receive an honorarium to lead the sessions. Donations are welcome and can be made here.

Jones said, “People are a little suspicious of us because we have these beautiful aprons with the tree silhouette on them and we offer notebooks and pencils. People think we’re trying to sell something but we’re not and nobody can quite believe that it’s absolutely free. Donations are welcome but we never ask.”

Throughout her long career, Jones has worked on many large-scale, site-specific collaborative projects in New York City. She worked on Oculus, a constellation of mosaics of New Yorkers’ eyes commissioned by the MTA in 1999. It is on permanent display at the World Trade / Chambers Street / Park Place subway stations. Jones also worked on Mnemonics, an art installation for Stuyvesant High School, composed of 400+ glass blocks containing artifacts from the history of the city, the school and the world. Jones and collaborative partner Andrew Ginzel created Metronome known today as the ‘Climate Clock’ at Union Square. They were also part of the ‘Dream Team’ for the master plan of the Hudson River Park.

A main theme behind Jones’ work is the celebration of nature. That is why she was the perfect person to lead Tree Wonder. She discussed why she wanted to get involved. “Tree Wonder is inspired by the sheer pleasure of discovering something that you may have walked by thousands of times but have never actually noticed. The sessions are almost like meditations – people will sit, some stay to drink coffee, draw, and even write poems for the whole hour and a half. The gist of the initiative is that we rarely observe nature in the city. We live in a human-centric world. It is important to pay attention to nature and take responsibility for our precious planet.”

Jones’ interest in the iconic English Elm goes deeper than hosting drawing sessions. She is working with a team of scientists and artists to create an artistic and educational augmented reality experience that visualizes the complex natural systems of iconic urban trees and their interrelationship with their immediate physical environment. The larger project entitled BEHOLD: Trees, A Visual Exploration is the genesis of a global model that will engage humans at the foot of trees around the world.

“I think of the tree as a key to understanding Nature,” she said. “The English Elm is so iconic and so visible there in the park’s northwest corner. This tree can be the model tree for a live, biological digital climate/weather station where we could actually read and better understand the environment in real time, in the past and the future. Instead of seeing the weather data on our smart phones transmitted by the weather station in Central Park, we could actually visualize the live data and see what’s happening at the foot of trees around the world through augmented reality.”

Jones summarized why the drawing sessions can benefit people who are just passing through. “At the root of our ecological crisis is the notion that humans are separate from Nature. Nature is the most intelligent form. I believe in the intelligence of Nature and we humans have a lot to learn from Nature. Our planet would be a much better place if we stopped and took the time to better understand Nature.”

The drawing sessions are advertised on the NYC Parks Department website, the Washington Square Park Eco Projects website, Tree Wonder’s social media and newsletter, at neighborhood community and educational centers and in local newspapers like the Village View. The sessions are held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Sunday in the Spring and Fall.

So, remember, when Spring comes, stop by the Northwest corner of Washington Square Park, say hello to the people in the aprons, and look up!