How to ‘Write in Trees’ Artist Katie Holten on the creation of her new Tree Alphabet Amy Brady (354 hits)
Photo of Katie Holten by Dillon Cohen This month I have for you a fascinating interview with Katie Holten, a visual artist and self-proclaimed “resistance fighter” based in New York City. She’s the creator of the New York City Tree Alphabet, an interactive project that let’s you type in trees. Really! (Not an affiliate link.) Katie grew up in Ireland and studied Fine Art and History of Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin, Cornell University in New York and Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.
She is also the author of the book About Trees. Katie has been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including a Fulbright Scholarship, Pollock Krasner Award, and multiple Bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland. She is a recent fellow of the Arts and Humanities Residency at the NYC Urban Field Station awarded by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and the US Forest Service. Amid all this activity and success she found time to talk to me about her Tree Alphabet. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!
Amy: What is the New York City Tree Alphabet?
Katie: The New York City Tree Alphabet (not an affiliate link) is a new ABC. Each letter of the Latin alphabet is replaced by a drawing of a tree from NYC Parks’ existing native and non-native trees, as well as species to be planted as a result of the changing climate. For example, A = Ash, B = Birch, C = Crabapple. It’s a font and an alphabetical planting palette, allowing us to plant living messages with trees. I wanted to create something beautiful, accessible, and fun, but also practical (it’s a planting guide), serious (it deals with New York City’s changing climate), and ridiculous or curious (why on earth write with trees?!).
