I have a fascination with tree bark, the infinite variety of unique patterns and marks never fail to catch my attention as I’m wandering through trees. There are a few trees I recognize by their bark, but far more that I don’t.
I was looking at a painting by Jackson Pollock which is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the more I looked at it the more I saw in it, and it’s the same with tree bark… I see all sorts of interesting details and images… the thing is, you can view art again and again, but tree bark changes. The only way to keep a pattern is to copy it in some way, painting, drawing, photographing, doing a bark rubbing…
This tree was in a lovely wooded area on a hillside in New Jersey…
This tree was in a graveyard with gravestones dating back to the 1700’s…
…and this tree had been used as a scratching post by a bear! We see similar makes on a small scale in the woods near where we live, but in our case badgers not bears are looking for bugs and grubs. I did wonder if bears and badgers were distantly related, but apparently they aren’t!
Lois Elsden 
Sounds like you can’t see the forest for the trees!
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