Tonya Lailey: Ashes

This is my first graphic project of any length, or at all, really. Ash trees have been haunting me since the day I heard that the emerald borer was killing them  off in North America and Europe. I grew up in Niagara, under a thick Carolinian forest canopy, much of which I now know was made up of ash trees. Development and agriculture had already thinned out the green and exposed the ground to more sun, more heat. The ash borer came as yet another blow, opening up the sky in an especially eerie way. Ash, being some of the tallest trees in the forest, stood out as black, erect carcasses. This project became a way to relate to the loss I felt and to honour the ashes.

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