words:
Madison and Simon
photos:
Puzzlebuds
Tai Chi has become a very important part of my life so when we we partnered with Brandi and Simon from Okanagan Valley Wudang to create something special for their Kung Fu school we were so excited! With their unlimited trust, it was such a joy bringing the story of the old craggly tree to life. We knew the exact tree. There was a old dead plum tree on the farm that died long before we took over the farm. In fact it was dead when our landowners moved to the property in the 70's. Almost completely blackened, there it stood grandly with spiralling bark and long overhanging branches. We knew the beauty of the tree was almost all we needed to create something natural and magical. To help me retell the story of our tree, I asked Simon for a few words.
"There's an old story about a large, twisted tree that a passing carpenter critiques as useless. Too soft to make tools, too gnarly to make planks. Not worth a second glance! That night the tree visits him in a dream and tells him it's the tree’s uselessness to humans that's allowed it to have such great longevity and live in peace. This story is used in some Daoist practices where you begin by imagining your body as that useless tree. You snap your fingers and visualize the tree burning down. Then from that open space you fashion a new, perfect body. We wanted that tree at the entrance of our school to set the tone. Even the most grizzled old tree can cultivate perfection. The story of the useless tree is a classic in Chinese culture, something everyone knows, like how everyone knows Jack and the Beanstalk in the west. It shows up countless times through history in poetry, art, and even martial arts. My favorite depiction of it is from an 11th century painting by the artist Su Shi (1037-1101). It was quite magical how this came together because we told Madison and Erin about the tree, told them the old story, described it vaguely, but had never shown them the painting. It turns out they picked a tree from the farm that was the spitting image of Su Shi's painting from a thousand years ago. Either we were on the same wavelength or Erin and Madison have magical powers. Probably both!" -Simon
"Everyone loves our plum tree and it gives us an excuse to tell and retell the old story, which perfectly frames what our martial arts school is all about, transformation." -Simon
Once we put the tree together, we added tuffs of baby's breath. We loved the idea of brining in a light, yang energy to the dark crooked, earthy tree. We had to cut the tree in a few places in order to get it in the door of the school and when we put it back together we did not love that you could see the glue joints. Then comes Simon with an amazing idea. "As they were installing the tree I showed them some pictures of the sacred gingko trees in Wudang, where our style of martial arts comes from. When people visit these three thousand year old trees at the remote temples, they will often tie a red ribbon around a branch and make a wish. Erin and Madison loved the colour accent, which happened to match our school's template perfectly, so they added the ribbons. It really tied everything together." -Simon
Out of all the things we have created at Puzzlebuds, this is our favourite. Our favourite projects are always ones that align closely with nature. We want to be able to tell a story, and I think we pulled it off! "We are so happy with our sweet little tree. We provided only the vaguest outlines of what we were interested in and they filled in the blanks in the best of possible ways. Madison and Erin have an uncanny sense of intuition and an exacting aesthetic gaze. Everyone loves our plum tree and it gives us an excuse to tell and retell the old story, which perfectly frames what our martial arts school is all about, transformation"- Simon
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