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Trees Real and Imagined

Slender tree trunk bent into two parts rising from grass between fir trees in Portland, Oregon park.
The bare limbs of a shrub planted in front of a Portland, Oregon brick wall that has a decorative white rectangular section.
A New Orleans wall mural featuring several trees with the trunk an actual tree in the foreground.
The trunk of a tree enclosed on its sides by pieces of a brick wall in San Blas, Mexico.
The lower portion of a palm tree in Borrego Springs, California with raked sand around it.
A tree in a grassy Portland, Oregon lot pruned into a rounded shape, with some small branches starting to emerge from the top.
A mural on a Flagstaff, Arizona brick wall featuring trees under an archway with an opening toward sky and distant mountains.
A Leadville, Colorado parking spot and sidewalk next to a brick wall with a mural section featuring leaning fir trees.
The side of building in Nelson, BC with a two story white tree painted on it, along with a painted window next to a real one.
A Creston, BC brick wall with tree branches painted on it next to a vent with exhaust pipes.
The side of a town square in Brookings, Oregon featuring a large mural of a birch forest.
A Salem, Oregon wall painted to suggest another wall with broken edges that allows a view of fir trees and mountains.
On the left a Portland, Oregon park mural featuring a child sitting near trees, and on the right a glass window with reflected trees.
A painting of three tall trees with white trunks next to a wood-paneled wall in Marysville, BC.
A wooden fence next to a Portland, Oregon garage painted with abstracted trees, with real trees behind it.
The concrete walls in a La Junta, Colorado restaurant parking lot painted with rows of cactus.
A Port Townsend, Washington parking lot mural commemorating the arrival of the Tree of Heaven by ship from China.
Three trees in a Marfa, Texas parking strip with cracks in the wall behind mimicking the branch shapes.
A parking lot in Arco, Idaho with a painting of tree with white foliage.
Trees and mountains painted on a wall beside a sidewalk and parking space in Leadville, Colorado.
A set of small fir trees painted just above a sidewalk on a Portland, Oregon street.
Branches across the front of a Susanville, California mural of forested mountains.
A gate set within the trunk of a large tree that forms part of a wall in San Blas, Mexico.
Pieces of bark hanging from a structure’s roof in the forested ruins of a ranch in Big Bend National Park, Texas.
The midsection of a small tree covered with lights behind a spiked metal fence in Portland, Oregon.
A small painting of trees above the curb between a metal door and a tiled wall in Copacabana, Bolivia.
A mural of a wide tree casting shadows with real shadows cast on the painting by angled light.
A mural of trees and buildings above a marked-up sidewalk in the Mission District of San Francisco.
A leafy tree on a Portland, Oregon parking strip in front of a mural featuring forests and hills.
Paint buckets, trays and garbage bags in front of a large Baltimore, Maryland mural showing an urban apartment setting with trees.

The curious mix of tree murals with living trees or urban architecture intrigues me. I first began paying attention to real and imagined trees in my hometown, Portland, Oregon, which considers itself a “Tree City USA.” Later I began finding these combinations when traveling both within and outside the United States. Clearly, trees fire the imagination.