Where I live, in the southeastern part of the United States, there are deep forests of trees that grow very tall, very straight, very close together.  In the Fall, the leaves turn yellow; there’s the occasional red tree, but the experience is of looking at a dense growth of yellow wood.  So when I started to think about our challenge – “Roads” – I immediately thought of Robert Frost’s poem, “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood.”

Although the image in my mind was clear, how to make the experience clear to someone looking at my piece was not.  I decided, after a couple of false starts, to go with what I’ve been turning to most lately – hand stitch.  The first stitches I took told me that I was on the right track; the stitch would trace the height and straightness of the trees.  I experimented with thread color and placement, and was by and large pleased.

But when I stood back from the piece, I discovered that the stitched lines, which I had thought would say “trees” to the viewer, actually created the background for the raised columns between the stitched lines.  My picture is different from what I thought it would be, but I think it shows what I wanted to show:  two roads – life paths – diverging in a yellow wood.