Our Urban Forest
2013 - present
Project: Odditree Society
Role: co-founder, on-the-ground researcher, content creator, and illustrator in collaboration with Angela Hanson, City Urban Forester (former position)
Partner: Community Trees Preservation Division via City of Austin Urban Forest Grant
Approach: The project invites the act of LOOKING for NOVELTY AND PATTERNS as a tool for discovery/learning.
*An “odditree” is a tree, or part of a tree, that deviates from what is to be expected—and is most often an internal response to external conditions.
The Odditree Society is a loose affiliation of urban wanderers and wonderers, artists, philosophers, scientists, nut-gatherers, tree-climbers, and others who cultivate a sense of curiosity around the unexpected oddities found in Austin’s urban ecology. At the start of their lives, trees take root and become immobile. This permanence grants them an enduring adeptness to deal with what life hands them. Determined to persist, a tree’s form is the record of both ephemeral and permanent events. The Odditree Society works to record the peculiar, delightful, and noteworthy specimens that arise under these circumstances. In 2018, the Society received an Urban Forest Grant to design and produce a guide to Austin's oddest trees. The project involved fieldwork, creation of text and illustrations, and graphic design. It was promoted through workshops, events, and exhibits. To date, 6000 copies of the Odditree guide have been distributed. To learn more, explore the Odditree Instagram feed and visit the Society's website.
