Tree Vessels
Tree Vessels, Deborah Yasinsky, 2026
Outdoor Installation
Adamah, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center
Located at the beginning of the purple trail past the Goats
This outdoor installation explores ritual, memory, care, and transformation through a Jewish spiritual and ecological lens. The work unfolds directly within the landscape, integrating painting and sculpture with living trees.
Canvas painted with Yasinsky’s imagery is wrapped around the trunks of multiple trees, forming Tree Vessels. Bands of color encircle the bark, translating the vessel into a vertical, embodied presence. In Jewish thought, the vessel, or kli, is both container and conduit, a form that holds sacred presence. The act of wrapping recalls gestures of binding and covering in Jewish ritual life, expressing care, intention, and protection.
Ceramic forms are placed at the base of the trees. These trunk-like vessels echo cycles of growth, decay, and renewal, reflecting the rhythms of the natural world. In Jewish tradition, trees hold layered meaning, from the Tree of Life, Etz Chayim, to the agricultural cycles that structure the calendar. As you move along the trail, the vessels appear gradually within the forest. The installation invites quiet observation and reflection, offering the landscape as a space where memory, repair, and renewal unfold in relationship with the living world.