Berkeley, California (Wednesday, December 5, 2007)  -  Students from Berkeley High School will show their "Tree of Life" creations at the Addison Street Windows Gallery at 2108 Addison Street from December 7, 2007 - January 12, 2008. The exhibition is free, open to the public, and is wheelchair accessible.

The Tree of Life is an important symbol in nearly every culture. It occurs in every culture in some form. In science, The Tree of Life, is a metaphor used by Charles Darwin to describe the interrelationship of all living things through evolution and more recently has been used to show the diversity of organisms on earth. Berkeley High Art Teacher Jaimie Knight introduced the concept of the Tree of Life, an ancient idea common to many cultures, providing his students with a resource for creative work. 

The Tree of Life is also a motif in various world theologies and philosophies. Various forms of the tree can represent spiritual growth, as well as the human nervous system. It also represents the cosmic tree- rooted in heaven, the branches all of manifest creation.

Students in Berkeley High Creative Arts classes, which focus primarily on sculptural and printmaking techniques, have interpreted the concept with a variety of media, through the window of the natural world. They have created screen prints, Japanese lanterns with hand printed rice paper, papier-mâché sculpture, block prints, etchings, and drawings.

"Our process has been to deal very literally with the idea proposed by the modern conception of the tree of life," Knight said, "Namely that all organisms on the planet are interconnected and one should not be given priority over another."

The Addison Street Windows Gallery is a project of the Civic Arts Program of the City of Berkeley in cooperation with the Civic Arts Commission. For information about the Windows Gallery please contact Mary Ann Merker, Civic Arts Coordinator at (510) 981-7533, mmerker@ci.berkeley. For further information about this exhibition, please call Jaimie Knight at (510) 644-8003 Ext. 4.

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