A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

Sequoia of the East 

Day 4: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22,  Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

There are few things as beautiful to my eyes as these funny, spiky, little balls that look more like they were dreamed up by Hayao Miyazak than produced by a tree largely extirpated from the American arboreal landscape. 

I met a chestnut tree today!  A real American Chestnut! 

The introduction was provided by my friend, River Santina, who knows heaps about the flora and fauna of the region. River can not only name names, she can describe intricate details about plant characteristics. When she told me she knew the location of a chestnut tree, I begged for a viewing! I didn't have to plead too much, though; she was more than happy to show me. In my heart,  I was not sure how I would react.  Since the story of the American Chestnut is an American environmental tragedy,  I was totally expecting to collapse in tears at the sight of what I was anticipating would be a pathetic sapling struggling to grow, ambitious, but doomed from the get-go. 

Happily I was wrong! The tree actually exceeded the scale of many of its neighboring trees! I was filled with joy and awe that it was able to survive so long. 

In a "nut shell," here's the saga of the magestic tree that was known as the "sequoia of the east." According to many sources, chestnut trees dominated the 19th century forests, comprising between 30 - 40 percent of Pennsylvania forests. The trees were not just grand in stature, they provided food for countless animals including human beings. Their wood was rot resistant and used to build homes and furniture. Their loss was not just an environmental tragedy, it was also an economic disaster. 

The infamous chestnut blight was responsible for the death of nearly three billion trees in the eastern United States...due to the deadly fungus around 1903 due to a nursery of infected Asiatic Chestnut trees being imported into New York City...The infection quickly spread...By the year 1940, over the course of thirty years, the fungus managed to kill all but a few Chestnut trees in Pennsylvania. 

The Demise of the American Chestnut – (paconservationheritage.org)

Loggers around 1900-1901 in the southern Appalachians in a grove of very large American chestnuts.
Library of Congress.

Forests of a Century Ago – The Dominance of American Chestnuts | Department of Biology (appstate.edu)

Today, very few American Chestnuts survive. Scientists are trying to increase resistance to the blight through genetic engineering, but it will be some time before the trees will ever proliferate as they once did. 

It is also fascinating to note that the roots of the chestnut tree do not die, but continue to send up shoots fated, of course, to wither as they, too, succumb to blight. 

And yet, these shoots succeed in bringing hope, and sometimes the shoots become actual trees as was the case for the tree I experienced today. It was also delightful to see the many chestnut burrs strewn about the ground! Where there is life, there is hope!

 

Closer inspection of the tree, however, told a more somber story.  While this tree is an over-achiever, it, too, is not invulnerable to the deadly fungus as seen below.

The fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica enters the cracks in the tree and spreads what is known as a canker disease.  The cankers are of the diffuse type. They grow rapidly and in most cases continue to develop until the stem is girdled and killed; then they continue to colonize the dead tree.

Chestnut Blight: An American Tragedy | Forest Pathology

The crumbly red substance is blight that has gotten into the cracks of the tree and has spread. 

Sadly, another view of the tree reveals the dead canopy.

Meanwhile, however, one of the shoots coming off the trunk still looks quite healthy! The tiny round protrusions are called "lenticels" which River tells me "help with the passage of air." 

These leaves here are also perfect and beautiful. 

I could not do this project without the help of people with much knowledge of natural science - the botany and biology of the flora and fauna. Many thanks to River!

A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

Heart of Oak

Day 3: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22,  Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

"Angel Oak," Charleston, South Carolina, Spring 2022

Heart of oak are our ships, 

Heart of oak are our men: 

We are always ready; 

Steady, boys, steady...

David Garrick, 1759

The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford (goodreads.com)

A question I have been entertaining of late is  If you were a tree what would you be?

Although the question may sound as if it had been designed by a hacker to steal identities, Richard Powers must have asked this question of his characters in his book, The Overstory, because he assigned various trees to many of them. For example,  there is “Doug Pavlicek, who becomes “Doug-fir;” Mimi Ma is “Mullberry;” Adam Appich is “Maple;”  and Olivia earns the moniker, “Maidenhair.”

He named some of the characters based upon trees that happened to be growing where the characters lived. In other cases, though, the characteristics of the trees are descriptive of the people, too. 

Since I am asking a similar question of the very real characters in my own non-fictitious story, beginning with Cornelius, it is important to know what the habitats were like where my ancestors lived, both in Ireland, and in mid-19th century Pennsylvania.  

I have already sought the expertise of people who have provided me with some insights. Dan Rhodes, Bradford County Conservation District Education Coordinator, for instance, has been extremely helpful in painting a picture of the mid-19th century Ridgebury, Pennsylvania landscape. Upon his arrival, Cornelius would have been confronted with the aforementioned "unbroken virgin wilderness" which he promptly "commenced to 'clear.'" According to Dan, it would have consisted of hemlocks, white pines, chestnuts, oaks, hickories, elms, maples - with several others...in various densities - but most likely he would have been cutting a hemlock, pine, and chestnut dominated forest.

A conversation with naturalist, Richard Gulyas, confirmed Rhodes' assertions and also added that the virgin "old growth" forests Cornelius would have encountered (and cleared) would have included up to a foot of leaf litter. Earthworms brought from Europe, however, served in its decomposition and within 100 years, the soil composition would be forever changed, exacerbating the rise of fungi which would infect many species of trees, including the great American Chestnut.  More on that in the next blog post. 

From my own google-searches seeking understanding of mid-19th century Southern Irish habitats, I sense that, in addition to many species of trees not found in Ridgebury, oak trees comprised many of the woodlands in West Cork such as in Glengariff Woods and the mystical, submerged oak forest, The Gearagh. I still have much more research to do, however, and would love to be directed to sources of further information. 

To learn about the Irish Settlement of Ridgebury, Pa., I am working with the historians at the Bradford County Historical Society Museum and Research Center: Library Clerk, Denise Golden; Volunteer, Donna Pelton; Director, Matt Carl; and the historian who has written much about the Irish of Bradford County, Henry Farley. I just spoke with Henry last night who told me all the residents of the Irish Settlement - the Driscolls, the Sullivans, the Donovans, etc. (the tombstones at "Our Lady of Perpetual Help" cemetery read like the storefronts I remember in Skibbereen!)  hailed from Skibbereen and Clonakilty! With those words, the question "From where in Cork did my ancestors hail?" was solved. I plan also to resume consultations with the historians and geneaologists, Terri Kearney and Margaret Murphy, at the Skibbereen Heritage Center In Ireland. 

I will provide more details about the Irish in future posts!

So, if Cornelius O'Driscoll were a tree, what would he be?

Asking the question of oneself is hard enough. It would seem to entail harboring heaps of knowledge about trees (I don't) and - perhaps, even more challenging - something about oneself (a work in progress!). 

But to ask it of people, long dead, with little more than a few census records or words of description to provide insight into personalities, character traits – even physical appearances - seems like an a fool’s errand.

And yet I persist!

Using what I know thus far of Cornelius O'Driscoll,  one might determine he would have been an oak tree based solely on the species of trees common to both Ridgebury, Pa. and County Cork, Ireland.

But I am much more interested in matching the deeper characteristics of trees with what I know (and what I suspect) about my ancestors and, perhaps, the Irish in general. I begin with Cornelius, because he was not only the first of my own ancestors to arrive in Ridgebury, but he was the first of the Irish to arrive in what would be known as "The Irish Settlement." 

Fortunately, there are books, internet resources, and - best of all - people all around me who know A LOT about natural science and history who can fill in the gaps!

Of course, this is foreshadowing my own intention to indulge the anthropomorphism of trees (and perhaps other flora and fauna) via drawing and animation in my own work.  Scroll down to see just a few samples of many art historical precedents!

Saint Jerome in Penitence (c. 1509) by Lorenzo Lotto

Hieronymus is of gerar, that is holy, and of nemus, that is to say a wood. And so Jerome is as much to say as a holy wood. Or it is said of noma, that is to say law, whereof is said in his legend that Jerome is interpreted a holy law. Jacopo de Voragine, “The Life of St. Jerome,” The Golden Legend (13^th c.) https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9789048535866-004/pdf

                                                   Tree Man, Hieronymus Bosch, 1505

https://arthur.io/art/hieronymus-bosch/the-tree-man

By Toriyama Sekien (鳥山石燕, Japanese, *1712, †1788) 

About the photo:  According to the legend, the tree Jinmenju produces fruit that has the face of a human child. These faces don’t speak, but they smile and laugh all the time. If they laugh too exuberantly, they fall to the ground. The fruit is both sweet and sour, and the seeds inside also resemble human faces.   Miss Cellania  4 Legendary Plant-Animal Hybrids | Mental Floss

 

A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

A tree will be your mirror

Day 2: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22,  Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

Base of a Box Elder (tree), photo taken on Catharine Valley Trail, Montour Falls, NY, Summer 2022

"Trees mirror in many ways the life cycle of human beings: they are born from seed, they breathe and drink, they grow to maturity, reproduce and eventually die from age or disease. Their branches, roots, and the veins of their leaves resemble human blood vessels, and certain species even ooze a reddish, blood-like sap when damaged." from Sacred Trees of Ireland by Christine Zucchelli | Goodreads

In addition to Sacred Trees of Ireland, I've been reading the glorious book, The Overstory, in which the author, Richard Powers, writes with the beauty of a poet and the precision of a scientist. He also does something surprising - he anthropomorphizes trees in a way that is very self-aware and with solid scientific basis. While I have surely always adored trees, I never actually "related" to them past the age of 10 - or, perhaps I should say I never would have felt comfortable relating to them - until reading Overstory.

Imbuing animals, trees, and other natural entities with "human" qualities has been the practice of our species for millennia. Practitioners of spiritual traditions all over the world, past and present (including the Celts), recognize that we have more in common with non-human beings than not. Still, many in the contemporary world who adopt a more detached, scientific view of the world eschew anthropomorphism because it can lead to misinterpretation of animal - or in this case - plant "behaviors." This can be innocuous or it can be dangerous; thinking a bear wants to be friends, for instance, when she just wants her RDA of vitamins and minerals can even be fatal.

However, many more who have no interest in science view animals and plants as inert "objects," because seeing the "human" in the "non-human" can make it much more difficult to regard the natural world as existing almost exclusively for human utility!

It is my hope that A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea serves to assist in rousing feelings of connection with non-human beings. I believe these feelings are innate, but have historically been educated out of us. New scientific research, however, provides confirmation for what many of us intuitively knew even as children: that sentient, sapient, "social" life forms are all around us.

More on this - and, yes, drawings - to come!

A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

The "ship"

DAY 1: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22, Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

"By the Time You Cut Teeth You Are Already Ancient," Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ, 2/22/20

Four years ago I travelled to Ireland for the first time. It ignited a passion for discovery – of both my own ancestry and the history of Ireland – particularly West Cork. And so began my body of work By the Time you Cut Teeth you are Already Ancient, described as one part “meta-genealogical investigation, one part spiritual quest, one part cautionary tale.” I did many drawings for that project (some of which were to happen during my Uillinn: West Cork Art Centre residency originally scheduled for summer of 2020) which have been exhibited in three solo exhibitions (one of which I shared with my collective, 2x2) at galleries and universities.  The photo above was taken in 2020 as I continued to make more drawings for the project.  You can learn more about that body of work here: www.mariadriscollmcmahon.com  and here By the Time You Cut Teeth You Are Already Ancient.

My new work in progress is an “offshoot” (pun intended!) of the former, but rather explores the habitats – particularly the trees - of my Irish paternal ancestors – both before and after emigrating from Ireland.
 

Surprisingly enough, my wild curiosity about the habitats was aroused, in part, during my daily walks on my own tiny plot of land which turns out to be only 25 miles from where Cornelius O’Driscoll – weary scout from Ireland – and the first of my Irish ancestors to come to America in the mid 19th century, built his log cabin in Ridgebury, Pa. It was there, in the “unbroken Pennsylvania wilderness” where “Cornelius commenced his clearing,” as reported by the Reverend David Craft in the tome, History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 1770-1878.  Four years later, he would return to Ireland to bring his family and friends to join him in the new frontier. 

In sum, the little forest I enter every day without fail has become my "ship" connecting continents, centuries, and the living and the dead. 

In addition to drawing in preparation for an animation/projection (the process of which I am learning), my research during this residency will entail contacts with natural scientists, conservationists, historians, the priests serving "Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church," in Ridgebury, Pa. (which my own ancestors helped to build in the mid-19th century), visits with descendants of the original immigrants who established the "Irish Settlement" in Ridgebury, Pa., internet articles, and lots of yummy books, including:

1)  The Overstory by Richard Powers | Goodreads 

2)  Sacred Trees of Ireland by Christine Zucchelli | Goodreads 

3)  Wild Woods: The Magic of Ireland's Native Woodlands by Richard Nairn | Goodreads 

4)  American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow | Goodreads 

5)  Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham | Goodreads 

6)  The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben | Goodreads 

7) Barclay Mountain: A History  Bradford County Historical Society (bradfordhistory.com) 

8)  The Fir Tree Map of the Beara Peninsula & South West Cork Sheet map folded 

9) Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (goodreads.com)

10) An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

11) Lough Hyne – From Prehistory to the Present – Skibbereen Heritage Centre (skibbheritage.com)

12) Skibbereen: The Famine Story by Terri Kearney and Philip O'Reagan

13) Animation Sketchbooks by Laura Heit (goodreads.com)

14) Baltimore Castle: An 800-year History Bernie McCarthy

15)The Chieftain's Daughter by Marie D Driscoll

16) The Textile Trilogy – Destiny Kinal

Many thanks to all the folks mentioned above who have helped me already. I will be sure to name names at a later date! I could not do this research without you!

A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea

Day 1, Part 2: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22,  Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

(Video: 4 1/2  minutes of footage taken in a young forest )

                                           

The inspiration for A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea  came, in part, during one of my daily walks when  the wind was whipping up and I wrote (in my head at first) a poem which I entitled “Intruder,” the first line of which I decided would be the title of my work during my residency here at the Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.  

Intruder

A forest sounds like a ship at sea,

a creaky pirate

pinnace

g r o a n s

curses

shrieks of girls

delight

or fright

snorts of

whales,

laments

(A rock removed is a

depression

so deep

it empties the

foot.)

moans

Whose prints these are I think I know -

A hole

an inverse heap.

“the way I say!”

(Rimmed with fuschia, the doe’s ears glowed and

"My hands turned to dandelions!"

{Thanks for the blessing, James Wright!})

Ahhhhh….where can I go on this arc,

this wood, this mound,

where I do not follow and am not

followed?

Maria Driscoll McMahon, October, 2020

Some mornings I find remnants of tumultuous nights – sticks the circumferences of swords piercing the ground like ex-caliber,  limbs lying akimbo in the path where my feet want to pass. It all is an apt metaphor for  the story of  "those who came before" who speak to me during these walks. 

The video is 4 1/2 minutes and I find it almost as mesmerizing as the days I gathered the footage when the trees were talking to me.  One thing I didn't notice during "real time" was the phenomenon known as "crown shyness," so apparent to me here in the video!   What Is Crown Shyness? (treehugger.com) 

Moreover, I am beginning to learn which trees, or which limbs, are the poets, which are the orators, which are the cussers/the noisemakers/the activists, and which are the quiet ones.  I also take note of the fallen.  I recognize that the most loquacious trees are often the most vulnerable. After all, the limbs that talk are also the limbs that bump and scrape each other - sometimes to the point of breaking.  Those outspoken limbs - the ones who made the most noise, now dismembered, are henceforth silenced. Forever.