La Reunion TX Tree Carving: Day Two

It my not look like it but this is the result of 4 hours of work. Of corse I did spend a lot of that time struggling to get the chain saw that I rented from Home Depot started. If David  had not shown up with his beautiful chain saw it would have been a total wast of a day for me. Thanks David!

La Reunion TX Tree Carving: I've got my tree

This pile of old rotting wood is the tree that I will be carving on for the La reunion Tx second annual open house on February 7th. 

La Reunion TX Second Annual Tree Carving and Open House

I was selected as one of 11 artists to participate in La Reunion TX's Second annual Tree Carving and Open House.  This years artists are:

OLIVER BRADLEY + DAVID BLOOD 

TARA TONINI + JOEY SEEMAN 

ERIK GLISSMAN + ERIN GLISSMAN + ERICA FELICELLA 

BRAD FORD SMITH 

RASOUL KHALIQ 

DAVID CARAPETYAN 

ALBERT SCHERBARTH

VET 

CINDY THOMAS 

KEVIN OBREGON 

The La Reunion Tx property is 35 acres of over grown woods. Part of reclaiming the land is having artists come out and inflict their creative urges on selected non-native or dying trees. The objective is to transform these trees into a sculpture that will remain in place, exposed to the elements, and part of the natural cycle of decay.

Above is the drawing for the basic idea of what I will do this year. I will cut a tree down to a tall stump. Then build a platform on which the wood from the tree will be stacked.

I did a tree in last years open house. Basically I turned a cedar tree into a flat botanical specimen similar to pressed flowers. 

 

In the arty woods @ La Reunion TX

This week end Sarah Jane Semrad orchestrated a quick clean up and hedge whacking at the La Reunion TX site. It gave me the chance to do a little sprucing up to the cedar that I did for the first annual tree carving project. This photo of hot and sweaty me was taken by Sarah Jane.

Tree carving at La Reunion

Well not only was February 2nd Groundhog day it was also the first ever event to be held at the property of La Reunion TX.

 

The focus of the event was the artistic killing of 7 trees by 7 artists, including myself. We selected sick or non-native trees to turn into biodegradable art. In this way the property will return to its natural habitat while providing habitats for bug and animals. 

 

For my project I selected a small cedar (14’ tall), removed all the branches, cleaned up the trunk, and then doweled the branches back onto two sides of the trunk. The result was a two dimensional tree that looks similar to a pressed flower.