Concept:
From around 2010 to 2017, I had a student who took my painting class almost every session. This student, Ron, probably had some form of autism and would paint only a few things: sailboats, what he called "Mexican houses," "Mexican clocks," and Bodock trees.
He would talk about how Mexican houses had all these different colors and how Mexican clocks were really neat because their hands ran backward. But it was Bodock trees that he loved the most. These trees go by different names, with hedge apple and osage orange being the most common.
After he'd finish a Bodock tree painting, he'd show it to anyone at the center and have them try to guess what it was. No one ever could, unless I whispered the name to them, all the while they had no idea what a Bodock tree was.
Classes were put on hold at the center for a few months around 2017 or 2018. Ron never came back once classes resumed, and I eventually Googled to see if he had passed away—and he had, from cancer.
This painting shows a close-up of a branch from a Bodock tree.
I didn’t want to show the entire tree because: It’s not necessarily pretty. The "fruit" is what's most fascinating about the tree, and it's what Ron talked about most. I wanted the viewer to wonder, "What the hell is a Bodock tree?"
Interestingly enough, while growing up, I believe we had one of these trees that we eventually cut down. It was a mean ol' tree with thorny branches, and its fruit cluttered the lawn in the fall, often nicking me when I picked up the fallen branches while mowing. Since I couldn't climb it as a kid, I wasn’t sad to see it go.