How to Befriend a Tree: My Artistic Journey

Lately, I struggle to find time in my studio because of my job. I enjoy being a nurse when I’m with patients, but not so much when I’m in meetings with administrators discussing “the needs of the institution” as if the institution is a living thing.

I long for time to myself.

This afternoon I attended an art-making workshop. It only lasted an hour, yet it was a deep breath for my soul.

In the workshop we were prompted to make self-portraits as something represented in nature. I made mine in the person of my tree, the one I pass walking to and from work, the one with the magnificent knothole where its belly should be. If I became something in nature, no longer human, I would be my tree.

That’s what I drew.

December 28, 2017, excerpt from Prologue of How to Befriend a Tree: A Journal of Discovery While Walking to Work, by Julianna Paradisi

More than a year in the making, my artist book, How to Befriend a Tree: A Journal of Discovery While Walking to Work is printed. Like walking to work, the project was a journey. 
Restless and disappointed in no longer having enough time to make art in my studio because of the demands of my work as an oncology nurse navigator, in 2018 I began keeping an illustrated journal about a specific tree I passed each day while walking to and from work. The journal became a creative outlet and, during the course of the year, a tool for discovery.

The commercially printed book was made by the good folks @paperjampdx  from scans of the original book, complete with its hand-written journal entries. Each month is illustrated with over 40 hand-carved stamps I made @ateliermeridian . Throughout the journal are eleven full color monotype prints I made during my week long artist residency @sitkacenter on their historic Ray Trayle press in May of 2024.

Creating the original hand-bound book and printed copies has taken over a year to complete. How to Befriend a Tree: A Journal of Discovery While Walking to Work is the most complex art work I’ve done so far and is truly a labor of love. 

I’m hoping to exhibit the original hand made copy of How to Befriend a Tree: A Journal of Discovery While Walking to Work along with prototype prints, excerpts of text, and of course copies of the printed version, sometime in 2025.