Lee Thomson

And a happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate it!

This is another ghostly leaf from a hopeful place. My neighbor Mack has a yard full of unexpected trees. There's a pawpaw, and a persimmon, a magnolia, and this hybrid American chestnut. People have been working on breeding blight resistant chestnuts for a while, and the only way to tell if it is working is to hand them out to people and let them grow. Mack said he got little tiny nuts off this one last year, and is hoping for a real harvest this year.

The leaf image was printed onto iron-on transfer paper, and ironed onto a patchy circle. I like the way the circle stripes and stitching show through the leaf, making it feel ghostly and tentative.