Project Description

INKTOBER 2025 Day #14: TRUNK.

“I love trees. They are mesmerizing. I love their shapes, textures, and character. I don’t spend nearly enough time in them, either walking among them or up in them. I’m not sure where that love comes from. Perhaps it’s my inner monkey poking through. Whatever the reason is, it’s a pretty deeply ingrained thing. I have spent most of my life (including right now) dreaming about living in a tree. For a while I wanted to live the way the Ewoks of Endor and the Wookies of Kashyyyk live with elaborate, interconnected, arboreal tree houses. At various other points I have envisioned a house shaped like a tree. Kind of a tower but sculpted to look like a tree, like something you’d expect to see at a major theme park. There would be walkways and platforms among the upper branches to check out the views, but the main living areas and rooms would be inside the trunk, the entire central shaft of which would be open. For a while I thought it would be cool to have a giant fan at the base of the opening so you could fly up to whichever floor you wanted to go to. If the Plunger Monkey money ever starts rolling in, maybe some variation of that crazy dream (probably minus the flying bit) might happen. Maybe.
More realistically, I really went to get out west to see the giant sequoias and the redwoods. Just the sheer size and age of them captivates my imagination. I remember reading a National Geographic article some years ago about there being whole ecosystems up in the upper branches of the redwoods, with branches so thick and spacious you could build a small house on them. I’m sure it would be an expensive, tough to coordinate trip, but I think the real problem with me visiting the giant trees is that I might wander into the forest and never be seen again.”

Do you enjoy these silly pen and ink illustrations starring Plunger Monkey? Wish you had a whole book full of them to gaze at lovingly whenever you wanted? You’re in luck! Get a copy of Inklings to satisfy that need: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AO28074KOTGC&keywords=inklings+by+toby+gray&qid=1689026488&s=books&sprefix=inklings+by+toby+gray%2Cstripbooks%2C103&sr=1-1