Parian News: CSUN’s Department of Art faculty and staff showcase their work

This was a new approach to a project that I had been thinking about doing with our Christmas trees for quite some time.

Every year my wife, Maro, likes to get a fresh Christmas tree to celebrate the season and though we have tried to get them in pots, to plant later, we never could find anyone selling them that way -at least for a reasonable price. She likes real trees and not artificial ones, we live in a wooded area, in fact our back yard is on fire as we speak (Tujunga/ Sunland fire about 1/4 mile away} Anyway, every year we get a new tree. I couldn't help noticing how people dumped their trees after the season was over and I just felt there was something disturbing about the way they were discarded. So I started keeping our old trees. I have a collection since we moved into our house since 2001. I had always planned on photographing them and this exhibit offered the opportunity. I love shooting in 3-D so I shot each tree with a standard 2 1/4 format as well as a stereo version. Since it was fresh work, I wanted to see what the best presentation would be for it and I brought everything to James Sweeters at the CSUN gallery to curate. I included actual trees with the work. I think Jim loves a challenge and he came up with a great solution to create a story about my trees. There is something to having the actual subject in the room as opposed to just a picture of it.

On another level, the Christmas Trees project reflects on a changed America, a place where telling people to have a "Merry Christmas" may not be politically correct. As a tradition, the decorated tree came about in Great Britian from Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries. The "Christmas" tree isn't really a religious symbol, just a beloved custom to celebrate a season. So let's call it as it is: a "Holiday" tree.

My "Holiday" Trees, by Levon Parian 2017