It is by virtue of an infinite expanse of interconnections that we have come to be here at this point in time. Our lives are intricately and inextricably connected to all other lifeforms on this planet - be they animate or inanimate, tangible or intangible. Our genesis can be traced back to the very beginnings of cosmos: to that spectacular moment when all matter was created. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, merely transformed, and so it is that all life on earth contains that primordial spark of creation.
When I work with elemental materials, I am embracing the very fabric and matter of existence. The materials I use - wood, metal, fire, water, etc. - open intimate pathways to the real and actual; to the actuality of experience as opposed to the thought-worlds and projections we have about that experience. This is what is meant by the ancient tree. The tree is older than the forest in which it stands because it is born of deep cosmic time - time that is beyond mere chronology, but rather, evocative of the unfolding of the eternal present, which contains no beginning and no end, and therefore is timeless.