Lone Line Tree

Jessie Nilo

Polymer plate print

On the day I write this, it is my dad‘s birthday. He is the reason I shut down my emotions as a child, whereas in my 20s, God helped me find them again. Emotions are hard. On my way back from visiting my dad a couple summers ago, I had to pull over into a field next to a line of fence posts in order to process the jumble of strong emotions I was feeling after visiting my dad. A solitary tree helped me calm down, and I slowly drew it with a single line in my sketchbook. Today I’m happy to say I feel wistful and sad, remembering my dad, and it is good.