…to shed our winter coats.
Wrapped trees found along a highway. Sometimes you will see the newly planted trees wrapped like this to protect them from the harsh weight of winter. I really don’t know how effective it is.
I documented some smaller and very different looking ones last year. You can see that series here. After the drought that occurred here last summer many of the trees along the highway look as though they are struggling.
© Karen McRae, 2013
draw and shoot 
quizá estén luchando, la vida es eso una especie de lucha
Ah, wrapped trees return – I like the most hopeful one at the end!
Hi Lois, yes I wonder when they will be freed this year? That one has unwrapped itself.
Karen – you know those are my favorites – I still go back to see them – both the fog and snow series – so haunting and wonderfully photographed. Beautiful work, as always! K
Thank you, Kathleen. Wrapped trees seem to be a favourite!
I think they wrap the tree’s to avoid snow damage, snow can be very heavy and brake the branches.
Yes, I think you’re right. We had some very heavy snow/freezing rain that took out a lot of bigger trees this winter. I wonder though if the little flexible trees really benefit….?
Normally they should benefit, now they have room to grow and more light and they need less water than the bigger tree’s….As of Sunday the weather shoul drastically change for the better ! Right now it is still cold and rainy, but we need all the rain we can get so I won’t complain !
They look like rather sinister figures to me Karen. Sad to hear that the trees are struggling.
They do look a bit disgruntled and disheveled, don’t they? I’m sure they’re harmless…
Sadly, It looks like many trees haven’t survived.
They remind me of the mummified remains found in the High Andes.
I remember their winter shots! Beautiful here too! [I hope they make it!]
🙂
Hi Marina, I’ll have to go back and check on them. These ones looks pretty healthy but many others didn’t. Thank you.
I am glad to see more wrapped trees! It was the series you did last year that first brought me to your blog.
I’ve been meaning to photograph these all winter, I guess I missed the snow (except we are getting more tonight!). I’m glad you enjoy them, Melinda, thank you.
They definitely look like beings of some sort. I loved looking at these – despite the burlap they look so alive or awakening. The deer here are looking pretty scruffy, shedding their winter coats, too.
Yes, lots of deer around here, too. And apparently a bear nearby today but I didn’t go looking – tempting though!
Thanks for your comment, Judy.
Last year’s tall trees looked like, crazy performers in a theatrical play.
But this years trees looks utterly miserable. The refugees sitting on the
ground and haggling in the cold. —– still, photographically looks
very beautiful and lapping is the warm kindness of the gardener.
What a funny paradox. 😀
They are great subjects – i like the second to last photo very much.
I remember your post from last year…the shrouded lepers by the road, so to speak. Haunting and provocative.
Clapping hands with glee at the sight of more wrapped trees 😀 wonderful..
I love your wrapped trees. These trees look as though they’ve had a tough time but will survive. Such beauty in persistance. The last two are especially moving.
They really do look like they are bursting at the seams to be out in the sun when it comes! Cool photos 🙂
These certainly do project a strong presence. Shrouded beings of a sort we are not accustomed to on an average day. Thanks Karen for giving us art and thoughts for the day.
I like these – although they seem to be rather better fed than last year’s series!
Coincidence?! : )
Only recently I left a late comment on your last April’s post.
Herewith repeated:
‘Ah! It’s (almost) never too late for a com(pli)ment, eh? : )
What a wonderful series! Full of wonders …’
And as I am at it, instead of many most enthusiastic one-word-comments to increase my stats:
One of the other days apart from “Wrapped Trees” I ‘checked’ your categories “Landfill”, “portrait”, “painting” and “Architecture”. … Herewith I am bowing to the artist and her intention(s).
Good on you, Karen.
I remember your wrapped trees from last year. Wonderful! I wondered if there would be more – happy to see them. The wrappings don’t look so effective, though!
These spectacles are very lovely and valuable….It seems to be the pupa of the butterfly which tries to flutter completely after this.
Karen, I still find these very unsettling, but in a good way. Life, renewal….etc
Masked dancers, I think.
It’s only April, but Los Angeles is beginning to warm up, and I already yearn for winter!
The trees! I LOVE the trees! They look a little fatter this year. Perhaps from your delicious attention.
I have just gone back and looked at your previous series – what an extraordinary collection! They all have an enormous emotional impact. I’m not even sure what I feel … they are anthropomorphised to an extraordinary degree. They are haunting.
They’ll be pleased to be released from their winter hibernation, I hope they get more rain this year!
Eerie! I love your other wrapped trees series too!
The trees are back’ big smile-thank you
Your earlier images have stayed with me since my first viewing of them…and I’ve shared stories (?) or recountings of their effect with others, their sad haunting, ordered bizarre-ish-ness, and tired, monkish stoicism…. Their images in a mind don’t soon go away, Karen…you have worked a beautiful magic with them.
Thank you for the new photos…and yes, we are all so longing to shed our winter coats…and I do hope these newly planted trees live and thrive through many winters…they have a fullness that lends promise…hope.
Wow! They look like human figures. Surprising.
With a square crop, some would look perfect on the cover of a record – if such things only still existed.
What a spectacular sight, and wonderful photos Karen! I feel sorry for them, they look like leftover xmas present that nobody wanted. Thanks for unwrapping one.
I would have thought the trees were wrapped, to protect them from salt or whatever the stuff is, they sprinkle on the road to keep it ice free.
(That could be me, standing there, dressed in sackcloth, along the highway…)
That first post with wrapped trees was when I started following your blog. And it was wonderful to see these photos, so different than the first series.
I remember the previous post – it had a similar spooked oddness to it – can’t help myself imagining the wrapped trees as people. They’re fabulous shots, Karen.
Karen – your wrapped trees are something else!!! I remember the winter ones, and now that I have started making some prints using an Epson 9900, I would LOVE to see that series printed big and up on the wall of a great gallery!!!
ah these moving nomadic images. so instigative.
Comparing these wrapped trees to last year’s I feel that this year’s trees echo the sentiments that so many people are harboring about this particular winter. Mainly, that this winter seems to be utterly dragging on and that we do not want to wear our coats anymore. I guess even the trees are feeling weary : (
A great post! I love the one with the bird on top!
I was going to say that these have increased in girth Karen until I read to the end of your post and discovered that they are different trees. Just as interesting though.
Wonderful photos. The wrapped trees here and from your previous series appear like artistic interventions in the landscape, or as survivors from a lost civilization. Very evocative. But most importantly I hope the trees survive.
These are lovely, especially with your title. Thank you.
Wonderful, Karen!
The last one added profoundness to the very meaning of it all!
Great work
Thanks for sharing.
What a beautiful metaphor for us all!!
I didn’t realise they were trees at first and thought I was looking at some strange creatures from a film set!
These photos look eerie. Wasn’t sure what I was looking at for a second! Nice work.
awesome
Well I have never seen or heard of that before. Interesting, if a bit typically human-silly. Better to plant trees that are suited to the climate they are planted in, perhaps.
I remember the ones from last year too. I also remember how like strange cloaked people.
These one’s too are cool.
You are such an excellent artist, Karen, you just keep on impressing me.
Oh the wonderful wrapped trees! Looking very much plumper here, hooded far-travelled mysteries – I do hope they see light soon!
I also love the grey tones, they look almost mercurial on my screen..
Excellent sequence. It has Dr. Who feel – an invasion is under way & no one suspects. 🙂
it is incredible, I did the same project two years ago and I named it Involuntary Sculptures, photographing (in color) all those little trees and bushes around Montreal in April and May, just when the snow starts melting and their clothes start falling off.
Nice work!
That’s really interesting. There is a link here to ones I have photographed through the seasons (they are in colour).
I’m loving following your blog, what an adventure you are on!
Have you posted your tree series anywhere?
No, i van’t…they were for a school project my first year in the Photography Program at Concordia University. I used a 35 mm film and haven’t scanned them..I kept the negs though, they are all here with us in the boat! Lets hope they survive the humidity and high temperatures.These will be around-the-world-negatives.
The prints I left behind.
Thank you for following!
I had to check in and see what you’ve been doing with Wrapped Trees lately. I remember being intrigued by your photos the first time I saw them. Haunting and beautiful at the same time. I hope to see more of them in the future!
Thanks for checking in. Yes, I will keep going with this series, I’m glad you find it intriguing.