Ancient Trees and Ancient Words

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

“The soul has greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist. It is by the ideal that we live.”
- Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

With much on our “to-do” list, we nevertheless gave into the beautiful seventy-five degree autumn weather and took time to soak in the sun and the golden light of the gingko trees in the sculpture garden at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Gingkos are an ancient species of slow-growing trees admired for their attractive fan-shaped leaves and spectacular yellow to gold fall coloring. At the museum, rows of the fastigiate, or columnar cultivar of the Gingko are planted in green terraces of grass banked with yews. These terraces flow down the slope of the great lawn in front of the museum. The design is a work of art in itself. Now that they have grown up, this magnificent planting has created a series of “rooms” of golden canopies over lush green c…