As many of us do now, I struggle with some anxiety in public. Because of this, I went from walking various neighborhoods, busy parks, and popular trails to roaming through my own neighborhood, where I could retreat indoors if anxiety got the best of me. At first this was great, because I was exploring parts of my environment I had never seen before. But Highland Park is only so big, and I needed to find a way to change up my walks. As an artist, I find the way we interact with urban settings fascinating, and I like to contemplate what makes people choose what they do in terms of design and aesthetics. This lends itself to changing up my regular walks, and I hope it inspires you to do the same: what I see and think about might be completely different for you! On trees If you are interested in plants like I am, you might take note of trees. They're everywhere in urban and suburban landscapes, sometimes shoehorned into spaces in ways that are very different from what you see in the woods. What do you notice about trees in your neighborhood? When you look at a tree, can you tell where human interventions have changed the growing pattern? Can you see places in the bark where bottom branches have been cut? Is the tree shaped? Can you tell if the trees are old? Are there parts of the tree that are dead, or yellow growths on new trees? Do you notice the patterns of bark growth? Is the tree out of place (like palm trees typically found around Pitt’s campus in the summer), and how does its location affect the tree's growth? Observations from my walk Walking around Highland Park, I began to really take note of trees around power lines. People have very precisely shaped these trees to keep them from interfering with the lines, but beyond that there seems to be no care for the trees' aesthetic, which makes for weird and whimsical creations. My favorite was one with a single branch directly under the power lines, which made it look like it was holding the line up. Trees in sidewalks also have some interesting root growth. It’s strange to see such large roots aboveground, as the tree tries to expand beyond the little space it was given between sidewalk and road. I also found one where the root split the sidewalk in half, and while it isn’t uncommon for roots to grow under the sidewalk, you don’t often see them clearly breaking through on smaller trees. There was one tree at an extreme tilt that looked like it was looming over the cars. One tall tree looked like it had had all of its branches chopped off, only to rebel and sprout new growth from the bottom, with one very prominent branch at the top. It was very striking and resembled a rebellious power line pole itself. We probably don’t think of this much, but so many power line poles are former trees. You can see the notches that use to be branches, and how it tapers toward the top. It’s also a reminder of when paper flyers were used a lot more often; if you look closely, you can often see a lot of staples. Something else I observed are the prevalence of Japanese Maples! I swear you can’t walk a block in Highland Park without seeing one in someone's yard. People use a wide variety of trees for landscaping, but because I didn’t grow up in an area where a lot of people planted ornamental trees, these red trees stand out a lot (just like Pitt's palm trees). I managed to find a dracaena, another variety of tropical tree, planted in someone’s yard; it presumably hasn’t survived over the winter and was planted just for the season. Try taking a walk through your neighborhood with a fresh, focused, and creative eye. What do you observe about the trees there...? - Mike Campbell, Center for Creativity Assistant. Find Mike's work on Instagram.
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