Daylight at Russell’s Corners 

George Ault created this winter landscape with oil on canvas. A stark tree stands leafless and barren, its Y-shaped form reaching up toward the sky. This configuration has long served as a potent symbol—appearing in antiquity as the ‘pyramid tree’ or the ‘tree of life’—representing a point of intersection. Here, this barren tree evokes a deeper contemplation on mortality, and the cyclical nature of life and death. This stark symbolism is not confined to Ault’s canvas; it resonates through history, finding echoes in the works of artists such as Caspar David Friedrich, where trees similarly mirror the transience of human existence. Consider how a symbol might evolve yet retain its emotional core. The tree is more than just a botanical element. It evokes a visceral, perhaps subconscious, recognition of the passage of time, the inevitability of change, and the quiet dignity of endurance. It is this potent intersection of personal emotion and cultural memory that animates our encounter with the work.