What makes a tree

lichen with grand intentions, on a rock in Broger's Creek, near Kiama

it's quite a question. I was sure that I knew. But now, now that I'm trying to actually shape them, to abstractedly make a 'tree-like' thing (or several), I find that perhaps I didn't know quite enough. I mean, I can make a tree easily enough that conforms to the basic laws of organic patterning, but my trees need to flow - to bend in a liquid breeze as if they were in the airy wind.

a sea sponge whose footing-rock got thrown up on the beach at the Boneyard, near Kiama

An underwater forest. Made of terrestrial-like trees, which behave in the ocean current in a way reminiscent of a strong wind in a stand of tall trees.

So not only form is needed here, but solidity and strain and buoyancy and pressure and flow, all together, in the correct amounts. To re-produce nuances of the terrestrial within the land of aqua profunda. Hmmm. Start with form.

more lichen - same patch

sea sponge washed up at The Boneyard - disconnected from it's rock footing

a small stand

pared-back sponge