Born Emily Read in Nashville, TN, Tree Lily Butcher knew what she wanted to be very early in life: in the words of 7-year-old Tree, “I want to be when I grow up I will be an artist and a mom because a mom is the best job in the world. An artist is a good job too I think because I love to paint pictures.”

As a high school student at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN, Tree started her own zine “Sheep Grenade” which caused quite a stir in the small country town due to age appropriate obscenity. Through this experimental zine, she found her love of hand-cut collage.

In March of 2020, Tree Lily was 3 months pregnant, an unemployed waitress full of fear, anxiety and depression. So, she shut herself into her home art studio and ripped apart magazines while the world split at the seams. Change is at the very core of hand-cut collage and change is what inspired her to pursue art professionally.