It’s noticeable from my portraits of Martina that she’s a quirky girl, but it seems to run in the family: her grandma turned 75 earlier this year and was adamant about celebrating with a solo pilgrimage to Old Tjikko, the oldest pine tree in the world and one of the oldest living beings in general, estimated to be over 9500 years old. The tree is a sacred site to martens, squirrels and pretty much all other anthro species descending from tree-dwelling animals. Nowadays very few people perform the pilgrimage the way martens traditionally did it, that is trekking without any clothes from the Sweden town of Särna (nearly 30 km away) bringing only a minimal amount of food and water, but that’s exactly how the grayfur lady did it – and in record time for the 70+ age group too. Being a former documentary camera operator still in great shape does that for you I guess. It is said that in ancient times such a pilgrimage was performed by the elderly in the depth of winter as a form of ritual suicide in the vein of the Ättestupa tradition. Anyway, the way she related the experience is so touching that I had to try to capture it in a drawing.