Daily Oak: December report

Number of days missed: 0

Number of days with more than one visit: 5

Number of visits with more than the two standard perspectives taken: 11

Total number of pictures taken:

This was probably the hardest month to continue my daily art project “Daily Oak”. I tend to be rather affected by the diminishing amount of daylight during the winter months, and this feeling somehow projected itself onto the project. It seemed like the tree was forever covered by a gray and dismal sky, with only a minimal amount of snow. Looking at the pictures in hindsight now, I realize, that wasn’t the case all the time, I did indeed catch a few bright moments when a wink of sunlight was out. Although I did miss at least three or four instances when I looked up from my work, saw that the sun was out and wanted to head for the tree for a visit, but by the time I got there or even before I had reached the bottom of the stairs that momentary glimpse of sunlight was gone.

Perspective a, December 6, 2:01 p.m.

Perspective b, December 12, 11:13 a.m.

Perspective c, December 25, 8:58 a.m.

My attempt to ‘repeat’ the solstice documentation from the summer solstice was also doomed due to uncooperative weather. December 21, the last day before the longest night of the year, and December 22, the first day after the longest night of the year, were both so gray and overcast that it really didn’t matter when I would have gone, the scenery would always looked the same. Either day I only went for a single visit:

Perspective a, December 21, 1:32 p.m.

Perspective a, December 22, 11:30 a.m.

However, I did manage to get a few nice and sort of sunny shots of the tree:

Perspective a, December 2, 2:43 p.m.

Perspective c, December 3, 11:15 a.m.

Perspective b, December 19, 3:42 p.m.

Perspective b, December 26, 2:25 p.m.

Although it was a bit sad to know that the project would be finished at the end of the month, it was also clear that it was the right time to end. It was a wonderful way of getting closer to nature through getting to know more about trees, the yearly cycle of light and dark, and the consistent (self-)obligation gave a certain structure to my creative day: when would I go to the tree? Take an extra trip or combine it with another errand? Which time of day would be likely to produce a good shot with regard to the position of the sun? How likely would it be to catch a glimpse of sunlight, or would it be just a gray day? For a while I still kept looking for a potential other tree to continue the project next year – different species, at another place – but because I couldn’t find one that really met my conditions (free standing, not an oak, within approximately 10 minutes per bike from my home) I finally gave up on that idea for 2012, or this location. Instead I came up with another idea for a daily art project that I will introduce to you here in the next few days.

When I told somebody about this project a few weeks ago he asked me what I was going to do with it all. Was I aiming to get an exhibit? What was the purpose of it all? I’ll have to do a bit more thinking about that. Certainly, when I have time, I am going to make myself a photo book to document this in real, not only on the internet. Apart from that? We’ll see. I have another temporary project in mind that includes my Daily Oak, later this year.

This is the last picture of Daily Oak, taken during the 2011 Daily Oak project:

Perspective b, December 31, 2:30 p.m.