Angel Oak by Eric Lake
After a bumpy ride on a washboard road under a canopy of trees and Spanish moss, I pulled up to the entrance of the small county park. I sat in my truck until a Gullah lady waved me in as she unlocked the chained fence. John’s Island has a large Gullah population, descendants of African slaves that speak a dialect called Geechee. They, along with a few ruins, are a reminder of the many plantations that dotted this coastline known as the Low Country. I noticed, sitting shotgun in the Winnebago parked next to me, was a small dog who also had his eyes fixed on the woman’s actions. The Park lady brought out a small A- frame sign that gave instructions about social distancing. I grabbed my mask and camera bag and headed in. A sandy path led to an old moss covered house with cedar shingles and a screened-in back porch. It served as the park office and gift shop. I pressed my nose against the screen to see the stack of sweetgrass baskets for sale, made by hand from the local residents. I avoided going inside and took a side entrance into the park. There she stood, one of the oldest living things on the East coast, Angel Oak. The live oak is believed to be over 400 years old. I was happy that I came early—the light was still good and I had the park to myself. I was able to get a few clean shots before I heard the couple from the van coming up the path. They were pushing a square cart that looked like a baby stroller. They reached down into it and pulled up, to my surprise, the dog from the front seat. They began posing the dog with the tree as its background. I resisted the tendency to photograph the spectacle and resumed snapping some pictures for future art projects. The park would soon be full, which would not be good for my photos or social distancing.
Angel Oak is a Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) located in Angel Oak Park on John’s Island near Charleston, South Carolina. The tree is estimated to be 400–500 years old.
The tree is truly amazing, standing over 66 feet tall with a circumference of 28 feet. The branches reach out like the tentacles of an octopus, many as thick as tree trunks. They seem to defy gravity with several over a hundred feet in length. Some rest on the ground while others seem to levitate just inches above. They are beautifully decorated with ferns and other greenery. This tree has survived thousands of storms and hurricanes. It’s hard to imagine designing a structure more efficient or beautiful. As I stared at the tree, several visitors started making their way in, each one compliant with a mask. Time to pack up my gear and head back to camp.
I got a lot of good source material from James and John’s Island for my next series of paintings.
The next day, Tina and I walked through the nearby graveyard at St. John’s Parrish Church. A church and graveyard has been on this spot since the early 1700’s. It has several massive oak trees of its own, though none coming close to the grandeur of the aforementioned. As we walked through the graveyard with my brother and his family, we recognized many names from the area…Seabrook, Whaley and Gervais, to name a few. Many, if not all, of these people no doubt had visited Angel Oak in their own time period. They, like us, probably thought of those that came before. The tree had outlived them all. Several years ago, I had used Angel Oak as an illustration in a talk I gave at a convention in Columbia, South Carolina. As trees face storms, they develop fiber strength allowing them to survive larger storms. It’s not hard to see this tree as an illustration for our own time. Perhaps as we weather the present storms, we will be the stronger for it.
