Olga Volchkova Russian/American, 1970
Dogwood flowers are glowing in the forest underbrush like floating angels. Native people treated them as communication lines to the spirit of the forest. I used this connection to ask "why do we call this tree a 'dogwood'?" The answer came: the etymology is the old English word "dag" which is a cognate with "dagger" … because the wood is very strong, and was commonly used to make nails, pins, and knives.