John Warren Travis
Gingko, 2018
Acrylic on Mountboard
5.5’W x 7’H
Artist Statement
One tree that have become a part of my life and deepened my respect for nature. It seems like only a few years ago that they were planting ginkgo trees on Castro Street, an ambitious effort to widen the sidewalks and encourage more use of the sidewalks for open air seating a la the piazza San Marco in Venice and/or the sidewalk cafes in Paris.I first became aware of Ginkgos in my morning walks down the hill from my condo on Buena Vista East. Their fall explosion of yellow leaves was breathtaking, my friends who knew more about their history than I did talked about how ancient they were. Studying the history of the tree has been fascinating and I, like many people in these odd, perilous times, am keen on why this so exceedingly different tree have survived.