Patricia Raible Artmaker

Sanctuary

As we entered the trail from the roadway my whole body relaxed. It wasn’t that it was a familiar trail. In fact, the trail was narrow, but what enclosed us was not rock or water (both of which I love) but trees. In “Trees: Between Earth and Heaven” Wade Davis in the introduction to this book of photographs by Art Wolfe talks about the different views humans have about the forests. Some groups view the forest as simply something to be cut and transformed by human imagination, but other groups view it as a place to be revered, the domain of spirits.
I am part of one of those second groups. The forest is my haven. This painting “Santuary” is part of a new series called “Pilgrimage” that will be both a look back at where these forest trails have brought me to at this point and where they have yet to deliver me.