An animated short by Io Kiyomi DallasKidd, a sophomore at the San Domenico School in San Anselmo, California.

I love redwoods but my first tree love was this maple I used to spend lots of time with as a kid. Not the tallest or the oldest tree around, but those branches were perfect for climbing and lounging in a nook. And in the fall, the leaves turned spectacular colors and had that magical earthy smell.

Negative space drawing of a tree in the Presidio.
India ink on rag paper

I was on one of my tree-looking expeditions and I knew immediately that this was a tree that I wanted to make a portrait of. It has a name — Old Tree. It is beautiful and gnarled, and has witnessed about 1500 years of history. (To find out more, watch Giants Rising!)