This subject has a strong personal resonance for me, for two reasons. One is the wonderful fact that whole groves of this tree are related, clones of a single organism, with the oldest known clone believed to be 80,000 years old. This seems to me a wonderful statement of the oneness and continuance of all life. The second reason is that in Western Canada where I encountered this specimen, the catkins emerge in April, and this is a timing I associate with a profound recent event in my life that saw me meditating intensively on connectedness and continuance. Colour pencil, gouache, and acrylic on drafting film; approx 13.5″ x 10.5″. ©Kathryn Chorney