The multi-colored "flame-tree" design was mine (Jud Blakely) based off a leaf-tree design that came from someone else.  I wanted to show the cycle of seasons in the colors we associate with those seasons: green for spring and summer, then yellow and red for autumn that leads into the chill, early darkness, and hibernation of winter.

 

Doug Macy had an empathetic gift that allowed him to tap into the deeper feelings that motivated those he designed for.  He was blessed and yet cursed by this gift in that he tended to take on the burden of their drive to bring into being a truthful symbol that did justice to those feelings.  In the VVOMF Living Memorial, he did.