Cabinet of Curiosities: TREE SCULPTURE (experiments in TIME CAPTURE)

TIME CAPTURE in the SCULPTURE GARDEN
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Project commenced in the year of 2001

Since 2001 these tree sculptures are still in progress. The digital photo documents contained within this artist's online journal is a personal essay that records continued growth and change of living sculpture. The works of the tree sculpture you now see, no doubt, have changed again.
Each photograph is a document which is best seen as a "moment" in the life of the tree sculpture.

The tree sculpture space is 11 acres of Carolinian Tall Grass Prairies and Marshes. This is a site specific sculpture garden which serves as outside studio and sculpture laboratory to study natures inspirations. The meadow serves to experiment in TIME CAPTURE through the use of biological tree species.

In essence the sculpture garden becomes an experience of my imagination, its a place where I can bring to life the thoughts that are inspiring me. Being within Mother Nature as an entity, which was born as an Artist, allowed me to realize that Mother's Nature, is the greatest book I could ever read. Not in a literal sense but in actuality a visual way. A knowing without knowing, hearing without really listening, glimpses of images the third eye refracts to the back center of my mind. The images on the inside from the great outside, along the artists way. Ya know that experience of day dreaming and listening to the wind, when there is no other man made noises cluttering the background, and one gets inspired.......... to create and make!

Each and every viewer is invited to re-articulate through their personal use of sense and perception, viewing these sculptures in what ever way, brings this body of work into identifiable or imaginable meanings. My personal observations reveal that the tree sculpture becomes a ethno-historical totem of growth and evolution, of life and death. Actually sculpting with The Tree of Life itself.

Sculpting with the found objects onto the trees adds a visual rhythm to something that represents Life. The tree sculptures personify the grotesque burdens and the inevitability of death. The tree sculptures become tangible visions from far beyond.

The surrealists have proven visually, that rational thought has to a certain extent alienated us from nature, creating in surrealist language, a dichotomous relationship to man and his environment. One looking at a man made made object growing from the trunk of a tree, is alien, yet Utopian in its visual state. The sculpture evokes a realm of abstract sculpture purity, a moving of ones heart. But also in the same stanza, the Artist places a old bone or stone into the life-cycle of the tree, and it visually seems unalien to us the viewer. It is now bestowed with awe, conjuring powers of mystical omens or just a curios for a cabinet of curiosities.

The tree sculptures become neo-tribal cultural sign posts within their natural environment. Modern yet archaic free standing and living sculpture.

WHY THE USE OF LIVING TREES AND FOUND OBJECTS?

In the Artists iconography of material, the found object speaks for itself, where as "the tree" used for sculpture material in a unorthodox manner speaks of "Nature", "Time", "A Life-form Free and Alive" yet older than mankind....the giver of life to this planet. The TREE: a symbol of oxygen in the ether.

The tree and the found object each by themselves, are perfect visual objects to metaphorically convey the vicissitudes of TIME.

WHEN DID THE INSPIRATIONS BEGIN?

The first tree experience to show me this concept of time was the tree in front our house on quiet rural road. This Poplar Tree was planted by my grandmother, my father cared for it and at some point nailed a metal family crest upon its trunk. Its been there as far back as I can remember. One summer, lightning struck this tree and ended its life. When we had to cut the crown of the tree, as to fell her wooden corpse to the ground, for fire wood, is when I was overcome with the inspirations of trees speaking of time.

Personally I pondered, had the tree lived, would our family crest be swallowed by the expanding girth of the tree? What would it look like, to see half of a white metal stallion running out of a tree? It seemed all so mystical and forbidden. As all artists do, they percolate and experiment before giving birth to a masterpiece created by human hands and inspired logic, bequeathing to their world, a master piece of visual, literary or audio theories, for the viewer.
The photo document below illustrates an early example of beginning to experiment with time capture.

In 1998 I had found a large glass bottle neck from the 18th century. Then found a young willow tree sapling and placed the bottle neck onto the tree like a ring on a finger, and just let it be.

The year 2001 I chose to end the trees life for firewood and to take the found object to the studio for study.

Detail # 1 of tree absorbing the found object.

Detail # 2 shows how the tree's growth is coming over the edge of the glass shard, creeping ever so slowly onto to the outside perimeter of the vessels fragment. The glass is quit thick, so it can stand the extreme inward pressures of the tree growing and expanding within the confined space.

JON-ERIK SPEAKS of FOUND OBJECTS

The use of an inert found object combined with a living biologic sculpture material to construct with, by pairing them, speaks a wonderful visual language...almost that of alchemy sculpture.
A piece of kitsch for the curiosity cabinet on the grounds that it is a living marvel of sculpture. One can not help but see the symbiosis of tree spirit growing in and through, a soulless piece of metal, absorbing it. The sculpture material in essence reveals capturing the movement of Time's moments. Out in nature, time is the strong, free and wild!

These mnemonic objects with their visual language in the tongue of sculpture, speaking of nature, abstracting the found object into a formative expression of "Time Capture" within a throw away society. To a wide variety of viewers experiencing the tree sculpture with third eye awake, their personal experience will be profoundly different with each viewer and each of the four seasons. Example being: To view a tree sculpture during a snow storm, in a ice storm, or maybe while its raining. How about viewing the tree sculpture on a hot July day, in the shade of its leaves?

Creation of this sculpture garden becomes a ritual experience for the Artist. Now working outside becomes a biospere-labratorial art studio environment, but at the same moment, its an outdoor exhibition space, where works in progress can be viewed. All the while the four elements of the four seasons are directing the lighting and ambiance of the exhibition space.

There is an inherent tension with the tree sculptures, one can not help but to ponder which will live longer or which will rust and decay first. The tension point being...could these be classified as biologic sculpture? Later on in the essay one will see examples of biologic sculpture with natural found objects and man made found objects. They are examples of different visual tensions and an examination of " How is the Material being Used ".

THE MAP

Below is a velum map of the sculpture garden on 11 acres with about 29 tree sculpture works in progress.Some are ready to be harvested and brought inside to the studio for documenting and art making.

Below is the same velum map with revisions marked in blue.
On Feb 4, 2008 a Municipal dredging project took place on the creek that runs through our homestead's eco-system. From the edge of the creek to 2o Ft inland, was clear cut as so the dredge could dump out the creek excavations. A large dyke is being constructed. In the process of progress a small percentage of tree sculptures were chopped down and destroyed before they could be harvested and exhibited. Farther on within the essay the reader will see for themselves the projects that have been interrupted.

Velum map with dyke building revisions to the sculpture garden.

PERSONAL NOTES

When I walk through the meadow with all the tree sculptures appearing and disappearing from view, it occurred to me that the tree becomes the remembering of the moment when the found object met the tree. Each bringing with it a bagful of visual metaphors ready to be interpreted. The found object also remembers the tree bearing the struggle and burden of the object it has to live with. Each becomes the others pedestal of display, like life partners in a metaphor.

Further personal studies of the tree sculptures, existing with wind, rain, snow, and leaves, revealed to me, that the tree becomes a living object which is capable of awakening sensations and exaggerate daydreams with effective power.

OOPS THERE IS AN INTERRUPTION IN THE PROJECT(February 2008)

Below is a photo document of of the dredging equipment in the sculpture garden .

The high hoe is just behind the tree sculpture with pottery shards growing from its trunk.

The above photo is documenting the changes to the sculpture garden and its proximity to the creek. You can see the swath that had to be created to allow a large drag line dredge to swing and dump its mud.
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LETS TAKE A WALK THROUGH THE SCULPTURE GARDEN

Below is a photo document of a tree growing up through the barrels of a old forgotten shot gun. Its visually profound when both objects interact together.

Tree Growing Through Sea Shell

In this sculpture a young tree is growing through a sea shell. Tree inertia is growing in the direction of the spiral. The entering of the shell, the growing through the shell and exiting out of the shell is visually profound, a manifestation of a complex theory. The tree now exhibits knowledge and a long forgotten broken sea shell becomes important. The use of materials is interesting for if we look at the fact, that the sapling is of a species growing in the Lower Great Lakes region of Canada and the shell is from the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away. Two objects each from a different part of North America, now co-existing together as living sculpture. One is from a realm of salt water and one is from an eco-system of fresh water.

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THORS HAMMER AND THE AXE OF ODIN
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CONCEPT SKETCH

11'' x 14'' Ink Drawing on Rag Paper

The Axe of Odin

This tree sculpture is about ODIN, the god of war and death, wisdom and poetry. Odin was an important elder in the creation stories of the Celtic peoples. He hung upside down from a branch of the WORLD TREE. His side was pierced by a lance as was Christ's, upside down for 9 days bleeding, which allowed him to vision 9 songs and 18 ruins.

When the tree is a little larger, the Artist will carve the ruins images into the trunk of the living tree. The carvings will then be living within the bark pattern, the ruins he visioned will be activated, in a manner of speaking. Once the tree has been excavated and the root system washed from the soil, the sculpture will be hung up to dry out. The axe head will have carved into its lateral face, the image or symbol of an eye. This would speak of how ODIN gave away one of his human eyes to have one drink from a fountain of wisdom.

The tree as sculpture material is very important in this series of work, for it is The Tree of Life that is spoken of in every culture. The Tree of Life or Quabbala as a found object is humbly overwhelming, its almost pure Norse art making, or is it faith and make believe? You decide for yourself. Personally, I am still artistically percolating on this series of works.
Its funny, ODIN was honored by having a day of the week named after him (WEDNESDAY) (ODIN DAY) (WODANS DAY).....so I began these sculptures in the spring equinox on a Wednesday.

I feel both these humble implements are representing themselves as Facilitator of Manifest Destiny.

Thors Hammer

This tree sculpture is about THOR, a human figure originating through the remembrance stories of myth as an energized symbol of powerful flow of Chi. An entity that could direct the flow of lightning with just a hammer and thoughtful intentions. The hammer was used by THOR as a symbol of the struggle against evil and chaos.

THOR was the eldest son of ODIN (that is why these two sculptures are growing side by side). There are 2 trees growing through the hammer's head. The trees are almost braided together, growing to symbolize the supernatural energy that comes through the handle of Thors hammer. The ancient celtic symbol for Thors hammer, will also be carved onto the trunk of both trees. Thor also named for one of the days in a week, he was named Thursday..Thorsday. To keep the tradition in light of the piece, this tree was begun on a Thursday.

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ODE TO THE TREE OF YOUTH
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FEBRUARY 2008
BELOW IS THE PRIDE OF THE SCULPTURE GARDEN,
AFTER THE MUNICIPALITY CUT DOWN ITS EXHIBITION IN THE MEADOW.

ARTIST NOTE: BOTH REAR WHEELS ARE BROKEN OFF

Concept Sketch

Exhibition Note: The exposed root ball system is the base of this sculpture.
It is to be viewed suspended from the ceiling.

The Ode To Youth Tree in situ

Frontal View
Note: The tree trunk has started to absorb the left foot peddle.

Detail of concept sketch

Rear View

Symbolically the tri-cycle is childhood and the tree represents humanity's cycle as individual. The Ode To Youth Tree is a metaphor for growing from child to adult. The bike becomes the symbol of the first taste of young extensions into freedom, symbolically never going back to childhood ways. The tree becomes, that which remembers memories. As the tree grows so does its riders.

Detail of bike seat absorbed into trunk of the tree.

As the tree keeps growing, it slowly brings the bike closer to the sun and farther from the ground, implying thoughts of Icarus and swan songs. This tree sculpture symbolizes through Time Capture, a right of passage for those who loved the first day, of their first bicycle.
This tree sculpture is the pride of the sculpture garden and its presence makes the meadow a place for outdoor experiences of imagination.

Looking Down View

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ODE TO THE TSUNAMI VICTIMS TREE
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Below is the documentation for Tsunami Tree. Sculpturally, it is an ode to all the faceless life that passed away in front of the viewers who were far away. The tree is growing through metal and plastic boats. In the branches there are torn sails and broken bottles decorating the canopy. Other utilitarian objects are being grown through, such as a gilded candelabra and a small child's chair. There is even a set of old forgotten car keys hanging and dangling from a branch.
The old rope and tattered fabric is disappearing as the months wear on.

CONCEPT SKETCH

Detail View of Concept Sketch

The objects tangled in the tree, speaks of a giant wave of inertia washing it all away in one lightning fast swoosh.

As the sucking wave recedes, all the man made stuff along with dead bipeds and flora and fauna clinging to the tree tops like grabbing, bony gnarled hands, desperately trying to salvage something.

Below the tree has grown through a high fired clay mask.

Below is the Tsunami Tree in the dead of winter silence.

The placement of the lit candles is a deliberate act on the part of the Artist, for the tree sculpture becomes now a personal holy place of remembrance. A tree sculpture that is a shrine, in the middle of a meadow that is surrounded by water. After the tree sculptures are created, they change year after year, becoming different and stronger than intended.

In some instances the tree sculpture dies standing in metaphorical relation to the every day world while the rest of the meadow just keeps on growing.

The tree sculptures become mythical and visually poetic within their natural setting. The tree gracefully embraces the conditions the Artist has set, along with the traumas of the 4 seasons, showing the time of strength and the strength of time. As the tree migrates upward into the sky with the found object, it silently speaks of modernists and Utopian assemblage, free standing and alive.

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Tree of Bottles
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The beginnings of this project started out with hanging empty bottles from the branches by strings. One season into the prototype idea proved that I had to redo the sculpture entirely. When spring approached, the bottles filled up with water and during the cold nights they froze and broke. My idea was to use a tree decorated with bottles to symbolize the essence of trees.
It was an interesting project placing the bottles upside down on the ends of branches.
The ends of the bottles with branches on the inside, allowed for the buds to sprout and grow inside the glass container.

Some of the bottles have the fall leaves still inside, like storage containment systems.

98 percent of the assembled bottles stayed on the tree, even during a November wind storm. The tree swaying back and forth, tinkling sounds of glass could be heard.

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Tree Power Turbine (Prototype)
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This is a 5 year old tree sculpture exploring the idea of utilizing a tree as a conduit for turbine energy. The tree has begun to absorb the motor and now with earth ground connections, it visually appears that the tree will emit energy to run the fan blades. The sculpture is an attempt to converse for myself, on ideas Tesla had; where by objects could be stuck into the ground and tap into a living energy within the earth. Free energy source for those that can sense it.

Growing up with my father and his colleagues, I was always awe struck by a story they always chewed on over the years. That story was about how Tesla had invented or constructed a walking staff that once stuck in the ground it would light up the hand blown light casing at the top of the walking stick. A human being could walk around and at any moment, place the walking stick into the soil and have a free radiant blue light.

To this day the images that I see, every time I think of that story, is one of the reasons at attempting this tree sculpture. I feel I am manifesting my visions, putting my ideas in the reins of the Imagination. Right now I feel the tree sculptures are in "the now " of my conscious inspirations. This tree sculpture was the beginnings of exploring Mr Tesla as subject matter and absorb some sort of personal formula, to try and understand how he saw his own imagination.

Tesla was in fact an artistic spirit, for he tinkered and assembled, then invented things from found objects. His sculptures became conduits which conduct and direct energy. He discovered how to contain and transport life energy, raw naked and dangerous. It was the power of art combined with science and math, divided by imperial time, that allowed Tesla to give electricity a understanding, from the center of the world. By the power of "The Urge To Make", Tesla showed us that electricity came from the center of zero. He created THINGS just to see what would happen.
I find the tree sculptures are now electrified by the metal flowing in and around the patterns of the wood grain, yet grounded into the earth , almost waiting for lightning.

There is currently 3 Tesla Tree Sculptures that still have to built, they are merely drawings with notes.

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Trees Growing Through Old Bones
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Just before spring approaches, a young sapling is chosen and a personal thank you is spoken upon the wind , to the spirit of the tree, my way of remembering that my sculpture material is living and participating in my art making process.
This photo is documenting how the bones are placed onto the limbs, prior to the buds starting. When spring finally has broken and the buds are just starting to turn green, is when birthing of the tree sculpture begins. This is the season for found object and living tree to become life partners, in the existence of sculpture. One must truly witness it to understand the experience.

The tree re erected awaiting spring thaw.

Here is a old bone that has been growing with a tree, can you see how the tree is growing through the hollow section of a spine bone. You are witnessing 4.5 years of tree growth around that found object.

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Experiment with '"The Grail"
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A tree that is being nurtured to grow and absorb this metal wine chalice. Here I am experimenting with personal theories on the childhood stories of the Holy Grail.

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Tree Growing Through Jug
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This is an experiment were by the bottom of the jug is completely broken off and was placed over a young sapling, this is 3 years of growth. My vision is to dig this tree up by the roots and have it displayed on its side, trunk, jug, roots and all; to speak about lumber as a measurable commodity.

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Experiment with Winter Found Objects
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This construction began with hanging a large antique wooden frame from a tree branch to observe the visual picture it was creating within the frames negative space. Also viewing how the found art object, effects the quiet meadow setting. A few field sketches were attempted, revealing an idea to suspend found objects with extreme color within the frame. This installation piece was very successful, even after a large snowfall the installation has a different effect and an intense visual quality.

Detail view

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Earth Within Space Experiment
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This tree sculpture is an attempt to explore the theory of space and time. Earth is represented by a hardwood ball, where as the tree is a metaphor for the mysterious concept of space, an attempt to visualize the concept of space existing around the orb we dwell within.

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Tree Growing through Bottle
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A sapling is in its first year of growing through a crystal gin bottle that has a hole in its bottom. Within a few years the tree will be able to grow by itself upright without the use of a support stake.

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Crown Of Man Walking
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This is a found object interpreted as a human figure walking. The piece of wood is the crown section of a young tree, just turned upside down and stuck in the snow. It is a wonderful example of Serendipity.

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Tree Lantern
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This sculpture has a tree growing through an old metal ships lantern. I am exploring the theory of trees as emitting chakra colorized energy. It has been theorized that trees communicate with each other through an invisible communication link, that can be seen and sensed by gifted humans and animals in general. Trees listening and communicating with each other is a very profound realization and so the reason for the lantern. It brings back fragmented images of sea fairing men with lanterns in the oceanic dark, upon fragile wooden vessels constructed from the bones of old trees, communicating with each other.
Note: This sculpture has been destroyed.

Close up document

View from underneath the lantern.

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Tree wrestling with Wrench
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This sculpture is an experiment to see what happens when a wrench of iron wrestles with a Black Walnut Tree.
Note: this sculpture no longer exists

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Majestic Elder
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In this sculpture, large fragments of a fine Japanese vase have been placed in the crooks of the tree. Their placement up the trunk, is to speak of a tree breaking and growing out of its confinement within the porcelain vessel. The bursting forth into a forest of freedom. This tree sculpture was begun in 2001 with a metal bird cage hanging from the lower limb, yet over time the cage rusted into pieces. The tree becomes an archaeological artifact along with the intricate pottery shards, some of the pottery decorations are of women in wonderful robes.

Detail#1 of how the tree is beginning to absorb the edges of the pottery shard.

Detail#2 of how the tree is attaching itself to the pottery shard.
Note: This tree sculpture has been destroyed.

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Chained Tree Spirit
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Here is an example of finding a tree along a fence row , where by someone, long ago hung up some iron chains and forgot them. I was given permission from the land owners to harvest this tree for making sculpture, who were just gonna hack and burn the area. This piece is a fine example of finding a wonderful found object as art.

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Tree Sculpture with Antique Coat Hooks
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We always need wood to build and to construct with. Yet at the end of the day we all have to hang up our daily regalia from life. It was a simple attempt at making a coat rack that was living in the middle of the meadow. Maybe someone on a long hot walk would come across this construction and want to take off their coat and sit beneath the shade of this tree and contemplate. Its an example of functional monumental sculpture.

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Experiment with Phone and Wrench
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This is a document experimenting with how a tree interacts with plastic verses metal over time. Once the tree is consumed both objects, the trunk section with be harvested and kiln dried, as so the artist can carve out and around the objects embedded in the wood grains. It is hoped that the rust will patina the wood grain.

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Stone and the Tree
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Here is a sculpture depicting the timelessness of nature with the language of sculpture.
My intent was to meld 3 young Ash saplings with a odd natural shaped piece of limestone. The saplings are braided around the large stone and in time the stone will be part of the 3 trees that themselves will meld into one life form. This is an example of utilizing two natural found objects within a wild natural setting.

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Seeing Into the Soul of a Tree
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Below is an example of using 8 pairs of old glasses and placing them into tree nooks and letting the tree absorb them. This tree is a fast growing willow and has adapted very well to the spectacles that decorate its trunk. All the glasses are half embedded into the main trunk, with one lens completely inside the wood grain and the other looking outside of the tree. It is speaking about looking for the soul of a tree.

Note; this tree sculpture was destroyed before I could salvage any of the visual theory,only these digital documents survive.

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Tree Growing Through the Negative Space of a Cube
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Here I am attempting to get a tree to exist in the negative space of a man made concept, the cube. It is constructed of stainless steel. In this document I wanted to photograph the visual ambiance of the art at night.
It was pitch black down in the meadow and when I knew I was under the sculpture I fired off a picture with auto flash. I did hear a bird fly and screech away, but thought nothing of it. It was not till I had returned to the studio to view the photos, that I have captured a bird (chic-a-dee) taking refuge within the sculpture.

Detail of other side of the cube.

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Tree with Engine Hand crank
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Its a very simple sculpture. A tree with a hand crank beckons one to start the tree's motor and hop on and go for a ride.

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Tree of Knowledge
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This sculpture is about the tree mentioned in the bible, The Tree of Knowledge. The large tree is a dead Elm, that has been destroyed by the Dutch Elm Disease. Its height is approx 50 ft high. Materials used consist of copper tubing, circuit boards, a ladder, 18th century chemical bottles, and a model of the solar system.
Glass lamps and light bulbs, clocks, gold and silver leaf along with automotive copper wires and conduit give the appearance of Borg technology. There is a large scythe from a long gone wheat harvest. At the pinnacle of the tree is a large telescope with a brief case hanging from a branch. There in red letters it says TOP SECRET and its spray painted on the side of the official looking briefcase.

Detail view

The above photo shows that the Tree of Knowledge is growing next to the Tree of Life.

In this view there a wooden bird house that never ever got occupied...for some strange reason.

Looking up

Detail view

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The Hand of Time Tree
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Below is a tree sculpture attempting to show the concept of trying to hold onto....TIME.

Tree #1 with hand being absorbed by the tree.

Tree #2 where the pressure of the trees growth has popped off one of the fingers.

Detail of Tree #2

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The Tree of Christ
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In this sculpture one can see religious images in the found objects. A heating grate for a halo, a slab of red injection mold plastic, a cherub and bones. I am attempting the explore the idea that the earliest portrayal of Christ was" The Image of a Tree".

Detail View

Note: Can you see the metal armatures bending in the arms of the Hydra-cal Christ. His hands and wrists have been absorbed into the wood, yet the tension visible seems to be Christ free of the cross, yet holding apart the timeless crushing of the tree growing older. It has the ambiance of images revealing a bit of Samson from the stories within the Christian texts. As the tree has grown over the years, its pressure has popped off some of the material composing Christs arm. The elements have worn down the surface of the Christ replica.

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Tree Of Knowledge
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These documents are to be viewed as a quadratic.

This is a large willow tree wrapped with wire and other factory floor found objects ,to give the visual effect of melding into a information age of digitizing. There are iron gears on the trunk with other pieces of discarded technology. The old computer has had its back panel broken off and filled with soil and buried partially under the main root in the hopes the computer box will be taken over by tree roots growing in through and around the screen and its layers of mother boards. Hopefully to become part of the root structures complexities.

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Tree Of Life
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This is The Tree Of Life and its one of the earliest examples of monumental tree sculpture. The artist has made this tree a shrine of honoring, with the braided grape vine wreaths suspended in the weeping willows branches. The hoop represents life and continuity within existence. Hanging in the center of some the braided hoops is a small white feather and in some others, there is tiny mirrored disco ball.
The light reflected as the wind blows, represents the spirits of all the ducks , chickens and fish that were harmoniously slaughtered under this willow tree. The old stump under the tree is the chopping block. This is a site specific sculpture, of an event important in the artists way along with a story.This is the very spot where I would look each animal in the eye and think to its mind..THANK YOU for feeding my family...Thank you Goddess's and Gods for the responsible power of taking a life for the feast...Thank you to the animal spirits.

The aluminum plate with a first nations story bird depiction, has been fasten to the trunk.Another found object assembled onto the tree is a mule deer horn, symbolically a shamanic experience of communion with nature. In the old ways, gifted elders were to wear a animal horn as part of the regalia. The horn 's tines were to point skyward as so to receive the visual picture messages from The Great Mystery. Here the horns tines are facing to the earth as a humble gesture of respect.

Above these two found objects there is a large white conch shell and a candle holder symbolizing the light of memory with the shell speaking of long distance communication.

This is a document of standing under the Tree Of Life and viewing the setting sun in the center of one of the suspended hoops.

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Ode To The Tree Of Trappers
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This sculpture is an ode in visual language, to The Tree of Trappers. It is commemorating an age which is on its last leg of existence. The age of the marsh delta trappers had a large part in the shaping of the Great Lakes during the early 1800's.

The tree has about 30 old rusted foot traps hanging from the limbs like laundry hanging in the wind. With all the traps hanging, suspended like freshly skinned pelts, it speaks of early sustenance practices of the early habitants of this river system, in which this very tree grows.

To view the tree of traps in the overgrown tall grass prairie, in the middle of winter, gives the ambiance of being out on the trap line. The snow covered traps bring back memories of out door campfires along a frozen river, that just gave us a days bounty of meat and furs. The trap you see above is a large beaver trap, it takes both your hands and feet to set.

This is what the sculpture looks like in the dead of night.

These are small foot traps for fox, raccoon, muskrat and rabbit.

Detail view

Inside a lot of the foot traps, I have placed a large nugget of glass within their iron jaws of death. The light refracted from the pieces of glass represents the life force energy of each and every animal that was caught and killed. As the breeze swings the traps , the glass moves around the light.
Once while sitting in the warm spring sun, studying and contemplating the sculpture, a robin landed on one of the suspended traps, swaying to and fro with no fear as to their purpose. The robin flew away and made the trap shake,within the meadows silence you could hear the chain links creek. That moment was the interactive part of the tree sculpture installation. This sculpture was torn down after 4 years in the wild exhibiting. The found objects were re constructed into another art project.

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Tree of Woe
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Below are digital documents of a work in progress. The sculpture was born in 2001 and every year another found object is added to it. Currently the tree sculpture is 16 foot high and about 7-8 feet wide. The concept was to have the tree represent something sentient that exists in a world with complicated burdens, growing and struggling with the found objects its got to live with. Studying the tree over the years I can view it getting stronger and reaching skyward.

The materials used range from chains, hollow bones, old hand held mirror casings, metal tools, large mammal skulls. Plastic Tubes and conduit have been fed around the trunk sections like a 18th century girdle. The yellow rope you see is holding up the weight of the found objects till the limb itself can hold it all on their own.

The objects as kitsch have their own visual baggage to interpret, so some found objects will have personal meanings to the viewer. On one limb, the tree is growing through a broken metal gun and a little way along the same limb, the branch has grown through a barbecue grill.

When the tree was young, there were found objects placed near the creeping roots in hopes when it is time to dig up the tree, the roots have grown through the lost objects.

In this detail view there is large plastic industrial cogg with over 5 tree limbs growing through it and the weight of the snow has bent over this section, effecting the growth pattern.

Above one can see the tree limb has been trained to grow in two directions through the mammal skull. Notice over time ,the two limbs growing simultaneously through the same object, resulted in the slow splitting of the skull. Eventually one limb died and one limb survives and is growing rapidly.

This is a document shot of the tree sculpture enduring a huge winter storm. The TREE OF WOE theory was well emulated this day.

Detail View

Above is documenting the seeing of a portion of the tree sculpture becoming exciting visually. I can interpret the limb growing through a broken mirror and the broken mirror portions are covered with fresh fallen snow. If you position oneself, one can view your self in the fragments of mirror shards.

Here is the same mirror as the snow melts with the change of season. The rusting intricate patterns on the handle clinging to flakes of fake gold gilding, speaks of mortality and aging upon the Tree Of Woe.

A interesting view of the chains growing from the tree.

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Wrenches in a Tree
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Here is a tree that is absorbing some old forgotten wrenches.

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Trees to Go
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This work is about the future possibility of trees becoming oxygen take out orders. When this tree was young , the artist slid a hollow metal suitcase handle down to the tree's midsection. Careful years of caring and adjusting has allowed the tree to absorb the interior space of the suitcase handle. In the below photograph one can see how the tree growth is beginning to split the seam of the handle,resulting in a wonderful symbiosis.

Detail view#2
Note; This tree has been harvested with roots and dried. It is in the artist studio becoming art.

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Tree Growing Through Spine
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Detail View#1
Here a vertebra from a moose has a young sampling fed through the cavity where the animals spinal chord would of been. The tree now becomes the life force taking the place of the gelitan spinal chord organ. This sculpture was started in 2003.

Side view#2
This sculpture is a metaphor in the language of sculpture, depicting the mysterious life force of the forest. The work also resembles a totem pole or a marker.

Side view#3
The concept of a living tree growing and becoming part of a skeleton is visually profound.

Here one can see the aspects of the trees time, creeping around the bone and is beginning to follow the trails left by the ligaments and tendon. The tree has begun to absorb the natural found object.

Detail view #4

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Tree of Oil
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Below is a sculpture with living tree and old fuel cans. The handles of the cans are on each branch. It is visually speaking of the possibility that the essence of tree juices will be tapped as a source of future fuel cells. I had a dream once of seeing someone suspend a solar panel in a glass vat of tree essence. I wanted to explore that fragment of information that came out of now where. As an Artist I wanted to build something from that thought, a piece of art to trigger more ideas.
Note: This sculpture has been destroyed to make way for the excavators

Detail view

Detail view

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Tree Sculpture With Broken Cup and Pop Can
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Basically these two pieces were experiments just to see what happens.

tree growing through a old pop can(Detail)

Tree growing through old ceramic coffee cup
note; the cup has a bottom section broken

Tree growing through a old pop can

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Suspended Found Objects as Tree Sculpture
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Hanging around since 2001

Hanging found objects from trees by our pond was a common past time for me. It allowed interesting still life's to form and become starting points to create drawings.