Sap!

1

Saturday, December 1st, 2012. Corrie was off in Dobbs Ferry, surprising Linda and making it to the baby shower they were having for Marco. I had the weekend to myself. Robot Crickets was edited and in for the final time, I had a meet and greet the next week for something called the Urban Teacher Residency that had a fascinating opportunity. This weekend was an island.

The morning started off blue and bright, with some patchy bright white clouds off to one side. I went for a walk to Lyon's, an art supply store a few blocks away. I needed some colored paper for a project I've been working on and off for a few years now, but back then it had only been for a few months.

In the dozen minutes it took me to find and choose the appropriate sheets of paper, what had originally appeared as white clouds moved had since overhead and started dumping water. It was raining. Still visible through the window in the distance was blue sky, and even among the rain the immediate area appeared bright and sunblasted. It was interesting.

Lyon's offered a mylar bag for my colored papers, which I accepted, but I noticed a slowly building congregation in the back area of the store. They had coffee on offer, along with cheap cookies. The cashier lady/older Japanese owner of the place noticed me checking it out and proffered, "You want to stick around? We've got a free demonstration today. Comes with coffee and gifts..."

Frankly she had me with "free coffee", but gifts? For sure I'll stick around. I moseyed back to the spot, grabbed some coffee and a few cookies, exchanged pleasantries with some other folks, and took a seat.

The demonstration was by a painter, and he was there explaining some very interesting things about painting, but not technique stuff like Bob Ross---not how to paint, more like what's the difference between pigment and dye, why does sable-fur make the best brushes, why expensive paint is better than more affordable mass-marketed stuff. The gifts were a non-sable-but-still-nice brush and some high quality paint.

He also spoke about gum arabic and ox gall, and gave us gum arabic as part of the swag. Both gum arabic and ox gall are liquids that pigments are added to to make paint. Ox gall comes from the gall bladders of oxen, and while synthetic ox gall is available, the real stuff is better.

Gum arabic is processed sap from the acacia tree.

Sitting in the art supply store at an unexpected lecture and demonstration, I imagined people throughout history---ancient artist types---grinding minerals or flowers into colorful powder or mush and adding it to random liquid substrates, just to see what made the best paint.

2

The rain let up and I made it home, content to drink beer and watch nature programs on PBS. There was a show about the excavation of some Chinese statues. When originally unearthed, there had been a very thin covering like paint that had blown off of the statues like dust in the wind. It turns out that is was a kind of paint, in fact it was a colored lacquer.

The show then went on to talk about lacquer. A toxic tree in China produces toxic sap that, when processed carefully enough, produces a resin that can be "painted" onto wooden objects in order to cure them. This tree is called the lacquer tree. 

(Also, in history, the lac insect produced a red resin that appears to be one of the original roots of the word, but...)

I sat up on my couch. Lacquer, processed sap from a toxic tree.

Barely and hour earlier I was learning about gum arabic, a processed sap.

My brain started to race. Plenty of things were made of sap, right?

3

Latex and rubber seem natural fits for the next spot to head in the imagination's exploration. Rubber has been an important thing historically in the realms of science and preservation, while latex has proved useful for many items, including gloves and prophylactics.

Because both latex and rubber originate from the sap of trees, they tend to be noxious to some degree, and cause irritations in many people. That's why nitrile is popular in the restaurant scene for gloves.

From there I said to myself LATEX? That's where you went next?

4

OPIUM! The greatest processed sap of them all, am I right?

All jokes aside, we have quite the array of plant-blood fixin's here: a substrate for pigment; a wood cure; something stretchy, pliable, and watertight; and a magical pain killer.

Where could we go from here?

5

MAPLE SYRUP! How about one of the sweetest waffle accouterments. Maple syrup is the processed sap of one of the species of maple tree.

6

As animals we have a vascular system that collects oxygen from our lungs and delivers it to our muscles and brain. There is also a delivery system for the nutrients we need.

Systems for nutrient delivery and respiration are needed for life on earth, and plants share those needs and systems. This point was never lost on me, but never before had I started to wrap my head around all the things and styles and ways the "blood" of plants can do and be to assist us.

Paint base, wood sealant, watertight seal, prophylactic, pain killer, deliciousness...these are just a few...

7

This post was many years in the making...well, that's probably hyperbole. It's surely many years in the "floating around in my brain like a 4/5 formed idea" zone. 

Even now that I've finally typed it up, it cannot possibly live up to my desires to show off the wonder that I experienced on a Saturday in December, alone in what amounts to be "winter" in Southern California.

It's just another piece of the puzzle---life's puzzle---showing part of the interconnectedness of this web.