more hard than compton

One of the things we do in our program is draw trees. Here's my latest, from right before New Year's:

It's from a small grove in Prospect Park, just after the first, long stretch of green fields by the Grand Army Plaza entrance. Olmstead historians like to say Prospect Park is better designed than Central Park--Olmstead and Vaux had 8 more years' experience when they proposed their design in Brooklyn, and they didn't have to deal with roads cutting across the park. I always liked Prospect better simply because I lived in Brooklyn for 5 years, Manhattan for only 1. Prospect always seemed more diverse, and in the summer you would always find families grilling meat, which I've never seen in Central Park.

We're also supposed to be able to identify what we're drawing, but I'm not so good at that, and I didn't really pay attention. Maple? If anyone recognizes it, let me know.

I drew the tree sitting at a picnic table. After I'd finished, as I was about to leave, I looked down and saw this:

I'd been so engrossed in drawing, I didn't see this graffiti, although my sketch book was practically on top of it. Public Art Everywhere! (In case you can't make out the illustration, that's a sideways 40.)