Nine Maple Seed Portraits

 

Photo credit: Susan Slocum Dyer

In an earlier post, I wrote that I recently moved and relocated to a place far from Fairbanks, Alaska.  I have never lived here before. Therefore, everything feels new to me including most of the flora, especially the blooming cacti. That is except for the maple trees I spy when I am out walking. The winged seeds of maple trees litter lawns and sidewalks. Too, some still cling to low hanging branches causing me to stop and ponder the uniqueness of each. 

Samara is the technical term for a winged seed. However, these maple seeds are colloquially called propellers, maple copters, whirlybirds, twisters, whirligigs, spinning jennys and helicopters.

How many of you have picked up a maple tree helicopter, tossed it up in the air and watched it twirl back down to the earth?  I have done this many times throughout my life, and with young students in my classroom; a first lesson in aerodynamics.

While out walking in my new neighborhood the last week of June (2025), I gathered handfuls of maple tree seeds. I was utterly captivated by the beauty of their diverse colors and asymmetrical design. Some, after twirling to the ground, had only one wing. When I returned home I selected nine of these seedlings to trace and pencil sketch.

Detail from the full sketch above:

I then carefully watercolor painted each:

Below is the finished work, currently titled "Nine Maple Seed Portraits."

©

Most trees, flowers and other plants are noted as having a metaphorical or symbolic meaning. There is a flower associated with every human emotion, or anniversary year. What are these winged maple seeds symbolic of? 

According to poetry resources on the web, the winged seeds “translate into metaphorical language about letting go, venturing into the unknown, and the possibility of new beginnings.” These nine maple seed portraits seem the perfect first artwork for me to have completed in this still so new place, a place of “venturing into the unknown, and … of new beginnings.”

Before I sign off, friends who have looked at this artwork say they see various faces or animals in the portraits of the nine seeds. One said they saw an owl, and another a bat. What do you see? Leave a comment and let me know.   - S.S.D.

 ©

⚓