"You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamozov
On my way to teaching my graphic design students in Georgetown, I walk through a small park flanked by ginkgo trees. Each fall, the fan-shaped leaves flutter to earth in a carpet of gold. The ginkgo tree has been around since prehistoric times, and that fan-shape is the only form of its kind amongst all of the many-varied leaves on earth. That remarkably ordinary leaf says so much: following an ancient pattern each season, from spring-green waving in blue skies to grounded gold beneath bare branches, yet still retaining its bright uniqueness, its uncanny sun-fueled charm and ephemeral spirit. Just like people.
thejoshuatree is my way of making visible all of the branches—art, design, writing— that grow from a singular curiosity about the playful mystery of life, with roots in storytelling. Consider it less of a marketing pitch and more of a visual essay. Each time I encounter a ginkgo leaf, I see it truly for the first time, unique yet part of a pattern. While I embrace the responsibilities and discernment of being in my 30s, I still take time to see the world as if it were new, observing without judging— like a child, in many ways. Stories reveal themselves only after observing them humbly.
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