Sunday, March 18, 2012

Dendrophobia

When i was young ( about 4 - 5'ish ), my father would take me to the park & tease me that all the trees near by had monsters behind them & some would even come alive to take me away. Since then till maybe when i was around 16 - 17,  i would get anxiety attacks if I'd went near a weird looking tree, especially if it was a massive one! Yes, I'm one of those weird people who had, at one time, a fear of trees & the forest. I decided to do some research to find out if this was a normal phobia and unfortunately ( from an artist perspective ) it was!

But some people wonder why would anyone have this fear in the first place. Trees tend to rot on the inside thus some they might actually be diseased & ready to fall unexpectedly. Also, plenty of trees often have abstract shapes which some can appear sinister looking & unearthly. Predators of the forest use trees as camouflage when stocking prey. This can trigger major feelings of anxiety to those with the phobia. 

I thought it would be interesting to dig into one of my deepest fears to see how my artistic skills can be tested. Below are some samples sketches. Portraying fear of something complex but simple in artistic form is never an easy task. But then again, fear is never an easy task to face.









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