my paper my land

I am working on a postcard to submit to a show entitled My Paper, My Land which will be held to coincide with the IAPMA (International Association of Papermaking Artists) Congress in Tasmania this March. The exhibition will be held from 2 March until 14 April at Creative Paper's Gallery in Burnie.
The works are supposed to reflect where you come from which put me at a bit of a dilemna - where am I from?! I often feel rather disconnected from the UK as I have lived so many of my adult years abroad. So, instead of delving into the personal issue of where I think I am from, I've chosen to see this as a more literal question of where I come from right now.
The other condition was that the postcard had to be at least 80% paper. I deliberated a bit over using Chinese joss paper in my piece, and collaging this with an embossed drawing or even creating some kind of relief map of the island. I decided in the end to make my own paper from cotton linters and emboss it.
I deliberated over various ideas - and then settled on an image which in many ways sums up one of the best things about Singapore to me - the wonderful trees. I love the fact that a tree (the Tembusu) is honoured in the back of the Singapore $5 bill. It is actually one of Singapore's heritage trees and you can find this one with its distinctive lower branch in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. So I decided to use this iconic tree as the basis of my piece. http://www.sbg.org.sg/tanglincore/tembusutree.asp
I went to the Botanic Gardens today to make a quick sketch . This tree really has a personality - and is so used by people. Although I only sketched the tree, I think another time I will go and sketch people interacting with the tree. The lower branch has two supports and I cannot begin to estimate how many people per week sit on that branch to have their photo taken.

I am now working on a lino cut to emboss onto paper. I've decided to put in a few additions aswell which I'll post when it's complete.