🍂✨ When I look at the Ginkgo in its autumn colors, I see a story that reaches back much further than most other plants. Ginkgo biloba is a living fossil, a tree that has endured across millions of years. Yet it is more than a species frozen in time—its subtle adaptations to new environmental conditions remind me that even the oldest lineages of life can transform without losing their origins.

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The Ginkgo’s autumnal shedding of leaves is a beautiful example. A tree that sheds its leaves is constantly in dialogue with its surroundings, pausing and conserving energy for the year ahead. Its leaf, delicate and fan-shaped, becomes a bridge between ancient evolution and present-day adaptation. In letting go of each leaf as the season shifts, it seems as if the Ginkgo has long understood that real strength lies in release.

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This thought brings me to a deep connection with the Ginkgo: its adaptability and survival are not mere relics. They are a testament to balancing past and present, to the art of adapting to conditions while remaining true to one’s core. The Ginkgo shows that evolution doesn’t necessarily mean losing our roots but rather creatively engaging with what was, and what could be.

🌳🍂👣💭 As I contemplate this tree, I feel a reflection of myself in a world that demands constant change. Just as the Ginkgo has learned to thrive across climates and seasons, I too stand within a field of ancient influences and modern forces. The tree reminds me that my own self, with all its primal and contemporary elements, has a place here—one that allows not only survival but the possibility of flourishing.

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🖌👹 Devil's paintbrush, Pilosella aurantiaca

Due to its rapid and extensive appearance, it represents chaos. Like a brushstroke that suddenly sweeps across the landscape.🔥

Chaos by Stanley Moss: "[...] Chaos is not a “sometime thing,” its face and back are turned to and from us, what I cannot see is beautiful, or an isthmus that connects almost nothing to almost nothing — the great unless, either/or. I grab on to metaphor, uncertainty, dark matter, gravity specific. The motto I nail to my door: The Devil generalizes, angels are specific. Chaos makes me merry, string or rose-by-any-other-rose theory, romance of the rose, roses that go with any other flower, from devil’s paintbrush to huckleberry. From fertile Chaos sprang Eros and Night: Chaos danced first with Eros, then jealous Night. Time carries a scythe, women and men sound the hour. I model for myself, I pose in north light. [...]"

You can find the complete poem on the Internet. It is very complex, unusual and, if read carefully, reveals a fascinating interweaving of chaos and order.

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The Ginkgo biloba has long been revered as a source of strength and life-prolonging properties. For centuries, the Chinese and Japanese have revered the Ginkgo as sacred because of its vitality and promise of miracles, and asked for their wishes from it.

The Ginkgo is a living fossil, as it has barely changed visibly over many millions of years. It is the only living representative of the Ginkgo genus, which has been documented by fossils for 290 million years. Until a few million years ago, Ginkgo trees were still widespread worldwide, until at some point its natural distribution area was restricted to parts of East Asia.

For centuries it was considered extinct in the wild, but some natural occurrences of this tree species, which can live for over a thousand years, have been discovered again. It is used worldwide as an ornamental plant, but has therefore hardly spread in the wild.

It is exceptionally well protected against diseases and insects. Bacteria and fungi avoid the acidic leaves and bark. They are poisonous to insects. Traditionally, Ginkgo leaves are used as bookmarks to protect books from insect infestation.

Someone who also valued the ginkgo leaf was Frankfurt-born Johann von Goethe, who even dedicated a poem to it. He saw the special leaf growth as a symbol of deep connection. Over time, the leaf splits but always remains connected.

It is a very special plant with a strong symbolic and spiritual meaning that truly does justice to its nature.

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That's how my painting looks now. I changed the title from "Terrarium Snake and Monarch Butterfly" to "Inside". That's an insssider.
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It's almost complete. Later it gets a frame that represents a terrarium. Then, if sloth wills, it's finished.

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The mysterious back of my painting. On the dark areas is a thicker color layer. Partly I dug into the layers with the brush, which then created these lines. As you can see, the snake consists of only a few layers of paint. Most of the layers I needed for the wood. You can't see the butterfly, because of the stretcher. The idea for the motif came to me during the painting. Originally I just wanted to paint my snake in a beautiful landscape. It's my first tempera and at the same time my first canvas painting ever.

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I applied varnish to separate the tempera from the following oil colors. The tempera have given the painting its extreme radiance. Now I want more nuances, transitions and spatiality. I hope to achieve this by subtle overpainting with transparent oil paints. I'm curious if it works as imagined. Through the varnish cracks have become visible immediately. The painting already experienced some shocks since spring 2017. I'll try to hide those cracks a bit. Practice makes perfect, so I keep on learning by doing! But I definitely want to start soon with a new detailed painting and this one blocks me. It keeps me trapped, but basically I'm already happy with it and all the statements are already included. That's why I'll finish it now. It later gets a frame that represents a broken terrarium.

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I've painted this picture for the last two days. It's pure fantasy. I just wanted to paint a beautiful landscape. In the sky hovers a cloud formation that reminds me of a huge condor. But you could also see a big hand moving across the sky (thx @liluchen945 for your inspiration!). Maybe this condor stands for a messenger, between imagination and reality? Aren't our hands exactly that? There is a way to the mountains, where the fog opens like a door. Maybe you have to cross the jungle and climb some mountains if you want to get to the clouds, where your imagination meets reality. The way is both, therefore only half represented. A giant would certainly make easy progress following this path. But only with imagination. Give the giant a chance! I call the painting "Open Door For Giants". The motive itself is about 10x7 cm, gouache on laid paper.

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I just felt like changing the sky.

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