If Klimt Had a Tree Row

There are many trees on the Penn State campus that I love, and I delight in showing them to you whenever I get the chance. Is there any greater gift to the world than a beautiful tree, its feet planted firmly in the earth, its arms reaching toward heaven? I think not.

There is a row of trees on either side of the driveway to the University president's house, near the Arboretum. Every year in early November, the foliage colors change and put on a fantastic show. And of course, as you know, I must go and see!

I parked my car at the end of Hartswick Avenue for just a few minutes while I got out on this morning and took a bunch of pictures of the trees in the rain. It is so familiar to me, the sights, the sounds, the smells, of walking up and down this tree row in the early November rain.

The morning was gray and wet, and I decided to cheer things up a bit by using the vivid setting on my camera to boost the color saturation. There's one shot above and another in the extras; please do have a look. The trees were lovely already, but I did my part: I helped to turn them into gold.

I was reminded of Gustav Klimt, and his beautiful paintings covered in gold foil. I find in him a kindred spirit, as I myself have been known to gild a lily or two, for the sake of pure joy. I found this interesting piece in Wikipedia, about the Byzantine inspiration for his use of gold foil:

"Klimt's use of gold was inspired by a trip he had made to Italy in 1903. When he visited Ravenna he saw the Byzantine mosaics in the Church of San Vitale.  For Klimt, the flatness of the mosaics and their lack of perspective and depth only enhanced their golden brilliance, and he started to make unprecedented use of gold and silver leaf in his own work."

Have you ever seen works of Byzantine art in person? If you have, I can promise you this: it will change you. I went to see an exhibit called The Glory of Byzantium at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1997, on a bus trip with my oldest sister.

It was spectacular. And I fretted until I went back the following year and purchased the show book that went with it; clutched it tightly in my hot little hands on the bus ride home. What it held . . . pictures of pretty little tiny things and bigger shiny things; reliquaries, triptychs, illuminated manuscripts. Gorgeous jewel colors, shot through with gold.

The Kiss is Klimt's most famous work, but I'd love to see what he could do with this tree row. The world is a fantastic place; it really is. It is full of magic and beauty and so many delights. How does the artist see it? In early November, we get to see it like this: in a work of pure alchemy, our world is turned to gold!

The soundtrack is Stevie Nicks and some of her Fleetwood Mac friends, with Gold Dust Woman.