Story behind the art of Heidi Snyder
26th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center
Male Pinus ponderosaa
Pinus ponderosa
The range of the ponderosa pine extends from British Columbia, Canada, to the mountain ranges of northern Mexico, and includes almost one-third of the states in the United States. Ponderosa pine grows at elevations ranging from sea level to ten thousand feet within that range and over nearly twenty-seven million acres in the United States. Pine forests are found in national parks and forests and on public lands.
Why take the time to render a common plant that has such a far-flung distribution and an almost ubiquitous presence? My reason is because this plant has had and continues to have huge cultural, ecological, economic, and historical impacts.
All indigenous populations within the ponderosa pine’s range have utilized the tree for food by eating the seeds or peeling the bark to eat the cambium. Ancient Pueblo Indians used ponderosa pine logs as beams in the construction of their dwellings and kivas. The Indians cut and hauled the timbers (without wheels!) from forests many miles away. An excellent example of this type of construction is at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico.
When Spanish explorers came north from Mexico, they followed long-established trade routes marked by culturally modified (ponderosa pine) trees. Culturally modified trees are trees modified by indigenous peoples and occur around the world. They serve as trail markers, markers for water sources, game trails, or historically important spots (such as a battle or a grave). Sometimes valuable items were hidden on the tree (under the bark or on branches). Tribal elders of the Southern Ute tell of parts of Spanish armor belonging to Spanish explorers such as Juan de Ulibarrí (1706), Pedro de Villasur (1720), Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante (1776-77), and Juan Bautiste De Anza (1779) which were hidden in such a manner. Not surprisingly that kind of knowledge is diligently guarded.
Logging of the ponderosa forests began during the late 1880s to meet the nation’s growing demand for lumber. New settlements in the southwest required timber for railroad ties, bridges, mine-shaft supports, housing, corrals, and mills. During the Second World War, ponderosa pine wood travelled all over the world in the form of ammunition crates.
And then there is the tree itself…often crooked, growing out of rocks, home of countless birds, insects, and mammals, it provides shade for a plethora of pine floor plants, fungi, and lichens. Nothing compares to sitting by this tree, on a rock, inhaling its faint scent, looking hundreds of miles into the blue distance while the wind makes the needles sigh.
How then could I capture this depth of meaning and value through time and place? I decided to depict an often overlooked and unknown detail, the structure and beauty of the male “blossom” or male cone. Like all pine trees, ponderosa pines have male and female cones, all on one tree. The big pinecone we associate with the ponderosa pine is the female cone containing seeds to be fertilized by pollen from the male cones. My intent is to invite the viewer to take a closer look at the intricate details of a developing male cone before it releases its yellow pollen. These details (executed in colored pencil) mirror the exquisite structure, intricacy, and importance of this common, but inspiring tree.
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Read more about this artist’s work: 22nd Annual