An ecologist might regard a London Plane Tree as an introduced noxious weed. When I look at that tree during the Autumn change, I might notice, as an artist might, its contours and color harmonies as expressed in this painting. On the other hand, a physicist might look at the same tree and see an example of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In other words, increasing entropy which is inevitable and pretty much sucks. The good news is that all living things, including trees, routinely defy this law by converting energy from the sun and minerals from the earth and use that energy to rejuvenate and thrive. In truth, I think about all of the above and that complexity further enriches the beauty of this subject for me.
