Tree Art for National Tree Week

Like every year on National Tree Week I like to do a tree related post. And as it is National Tree Week here in Ireland at the moment, I thought I would mention some 'tree themed' sculptures that I really like.

Ute Lennartz-Lembeck's Weeping Willow tree sweater in Velbert, Germany

German artist and art teacher  Ute Lennartz-Lembeck took up the hobby, also known as "yarnbombing", after seeing the work of others on a visit to Berlin.

Graffiti knitters typically install their stitched creations on signposts, statues, bicycles and any other surface that can serve as a creative display space. And just like graffiti of a more permanent kind, their work can be politically motivated, whimsical, witty or inane. Though they commonly call themselves graffiti or guerilla knitters, some of their works like the Weeping Willow tree sweater is actually crochet.

The tree sweater in Velbert, required 200 hours and 400,000 stitches to complete.

Being Ute's first project, she decided to work with a tree as it is a symbol of life, its roots, stem and crown are interdependent, one can not live and grow without the other... 

Unlike some knitting guerrillas who follow the lead of traditional graffiti artists like Banksy and keep their identities secret, Lennartz-Lembeck has taken on the role of yarnbombing ambassador, installing her creations openly and during the daytime, which often spurs conversation with curious strangers.

Ute also has a global project called B-Arbeiten or B-Work.
B-work is a worldwide network of single-word banners, attached to trees, lampposts, letterboxes, in fact anywhere that might catch the glance of passers-by in a bid to get them to reconsider their surroundings.
Ute explains that this is not the work of a single person, but of many people; friends, acquaintances and people who show interest in putting the works into their environment. Ute sends the various banners free of charge to willing accomplices all over the world. There are now over 200 attached 'values', in many places in the world. The work comes back to her in the form of a photo that she in turn, shares with the world the world on the B-Arbeiten facebook page or on her homepage.

Find out more about Ute's fantastic work on her website here.

Above photos courtesy of Ute Lennartz-Lembeck.

Another sculpture I love is this Tree Troll by artist Kim Graham.

The Tree Troll. A huge 12-foot tall troll is built by Kim and volunteers with completely non-toxic materials.

Kim Graham began her art career as a painter in acrylics in the late 1980's but quickly moved to sculpture. She has been sculpting since then in a wide variety of media and sizes ranging from 22' wide fiberglass dragons to fired clay figuratives to architectural ceramic pieces. Kim has in recent years moved away from her special effects/fantasy based mold-making work to focus intensely on one-of-a-kind fine art sculptures. These range from beautiful Art Nouveau inspired figurative plaques to busts and portraits.

The sculpture concept

Kim's inspration for this sculpture has a lot to do with her Norwegian descent, and when the 'Lord of the Rings' movies came out, she recognized the Ents as being similar to tree trolls from Scandinavian Mythology. People identify with this image, but it has special meaning to Kim as she grew up in a small logging community in Montana, and most of her life was spent hiking and camping in the deep forests of the Northwest. The great cedar trees have always instilled a sense of awe in her, and  a surprising sense of awareness. They seemed thoughtful creatures, old, wise, and kind. Seeing the character of Treebeard in the movies inspired her to do a Northwest version.

A troll in the making. Some of the 25 volunteers that helped create the sculpture. 

This 12 foot tall sculpture was surprisingly made from paper mache. She chose this unconventional method for a number of reasons. Most sculptors never get the chance to work large scale. It can be really expensive. A lot the materials are toxic, require safety equipment, a lot of ventilation or at the very least an outdoor site. That is the joy of working in paper mache. This troll was built in a space barely larger than the sculpture itself. It was done indoors with no additional ventilation and with a lot of recycled paper products. Best of all, this project was intended to prove just how beautiful and sophisticated a surface can be made.

Since its creation in 2006, the tree troll has been touring many garden shows and local markets. One of the downsides to the troll being made from paper mache is that it cannot be left outdoors. This year Kim is planning a new version that will be made in concrete, which will be permanently located outdoors.

Concept picture for the new concrete tree troll

Tree troll photos courtesy of Kim Graham. Check out her website to see more of her lovely work. 

Below are a few pictures of some other tree related sculptures I really like.

Heart Of Trees by Spanish artist  Jaume Plensa. Photo courtesy of littlestschnauzer

Claude Lalanne - "La Pomme de Guillaume Tell" (William Tell's Apple)
Photo courtesy of David Pittuck

Hanging trees by Andy Goldsworthy. Photo courtesy of  Dave AKA RoystonVasey

"Sycamore" by Wendy Taylor. Photo courtesy of malcolm bull

Joseph Wheelwright’s Tree Figures. Photo courtesy of Elena AKA elalex2009

This sculpture, I cannotfind any information about. If you are the owner of the photo or the creator ofthis wonderful work, or indeed know who it belongs to,  please email me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos from previous years National Tree Week blog posts

You can see my previous posts for National Tree Week here.
Also check out my post on two of Ireland's wonderful native trees, Blackthorn, Shillelaghs and the tree of the fairies, the Hawthorn

There are plenty of events on around the country this week for National Tree Week. To find out what is happening in your area or to advertise your own event, check out the Tree Council of Ireland website http://www.treecouncil.ie/treeweek/treeweek.html

No commentsRead more

Turning old instruments into art!

Brass pipe water feature  at the Philadelphia Flower Show's 'Jazz Garden' 2008 . photo by Bérénice

So this is a post that will strike different ‘chords' withdifferent people. For some this is art, but others may see this as decimation of abeautiful instrument. But before you begin to grieve for them, to my knowledge allthe instruments shown here were beyond repair.      

Garden Piano at Hagal Farm

The above picture is of the Garden Piano in the gardens of HagalFarm, my parents' holistic retreat in West Cork, Ireland. I have written aboutthis in a previous blog post which you can find here.

Recently I have become aware of a number of other gardenpianos. I like to think that after reading my garden piano post, readers ranoff to drag their old broken pianos out into their gardens, but I am sure thatthis is unlikely.

The Piano water feature below as well as the brass pipe water feature above were part of the 'Jazz Garden' at the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show.     

Piano water feature at thePhiladelphia Flower Show's 'Jazz Garden' 2008 .  photo by Bérénice

In recent years, with people becoming more environmentally friendlyand looking for green alternatives in the landscape, recycled or found objectart seems to be more popular than ever. With found object art, musical instrumentparts on occasion find their way into art pieces.

Artist Noel Brady at work in his bush studio
 near Emu Park, Queensland, Australia  

One artist that takes 'musical themed, found object art' toanother level is Capricorn Coast based artist Noel Brady.

Born in Ballarat, Victoria Noel completed his Diploma of Artsand Design at the Ballarat School of Mines and Industries Art School beforeembarking on a long career as a secondary school art teacher in both Victoriaand Queensland.

He retired to his Emu Park bush studio in 2004 toconcentrate on his own artwork with a particular focus on sculpture. Noel workslargely with recycled timber, clay and metal - but has a particular penchantfor reimagining old piano parts.

Convergence by Noel Brady

Symphony under construction by Noel Brady 

Noel has had moderate success to date, exhibitingin Rockhampton, Gladstone, Yeppoon, Emu Park and Goombungee, and has sold worksinto private  collections  in San Diego, Sydney, Canberra, Griffith,Dandenong, Brisbane, Cairns, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.

     Hepresently lives and works in his bush studio on a small acreage near Emu Parkon the Capricorn Coast, and regularly exhibits new work in a smallprivately-run gallery in the seaside town.

Lots more of Noel's artwork can be found through his website http://www.noelbrady.com.au be sure to check it out.

Lasseter's Legacy by Noel Brady   

An unrelated yet worth mentioning, Pool wall panel by Noel Brady

Mosaic Guitar byMosaic Artist Lisa Calabro   

An artist who takes a very different approach to turningmusical instruments into art is American artist Lisa Calabro of Crooked MoonStudio in Warwick, Rhode Island. Lisa has transformed old instruments intoartworks by mosaicing them. See more of her lovely mosaics on her website http://crookedmoonstudio.com

Mosaic Violin by Mosaic Artist Lisa Calabro 

Mosaic Guitar by Mosaic Artist Lisa Calabro

Thanks to both Noel and Lisa for allowing me to share their artwork. Thanks also to Bérénice for the use of her photographs of the Philadelphia Flower Show. 

No commentsRead more

Jeffrey Bale's Mosaic Pilgrimage, a labour of love, a labour of pebbles!

Lotus Medallion Patio in San Francisco

Many of youmay already be familiar with the work of Jeffery Bale, but for those of you whoaren’t, I feel the need to share his work with you. I am a big fan of mosaics.One of my favourite city to visit is Barcelona, mainly because of all the wonderfulmosaics of Gaudi that decorate much of the city. I have even ventured to make afew mosaics myself upon occasion (see my blog post on making mosaics) but nothing as large, detailed or impressive as the mosaics of Jeffery.

Jeffery at work

For JefferyBale, gardens and stones are not just his passion and his livelihood, they are instilled in his blood, passed on through a family history of gardeners andgeologists. Quite possibly onsome kind of subconscious level, these family genetics helped pave the way forhis future carer. Jeffery likes to think so anyway. It would also explain whyhe developed a passion for these traits at a very young age.

Following his passion for gardening, Jeffery graduated with adegree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon in 1981, butafter a short stint working a desk job designing for a landscaping firm, Jefferyfelt the need to get his hands dirty.

He spent the next few years experimenting in friends gardens and gaining onsite experience, before in 1987 deciding to set out on a sort of mosaicpilgrimage, to go and see the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada and ParqueGuell in Barcelona as the images of these places had mesmerized him back incollege, and stayed with him long after.

Round step stone with marbles, Indonesian Turquoise, Red Montana Rainbow, Black Mexican Beach and center beach stone

Jeffery began his ‘mosaic pilgrimage’ travelling to Madrid in Spain  and then on to Lisbon, Portugal, and like any good pilgrimage, it didn’t take him long tohave an epiphany.  Here, standing in a city encrusted in mosaics made fromsmall hand split blocks of white limestone and black basalt,  every plazaand sidewalk had a different design, everywhere he went he was looking at marvellousdecorative pavements, something he had never seen back home. So this was it. Jeffery Bale from of Eugene, Oregon, USA felt destined to return home to Americato replace its concrete pavements with stones and jewels.

So when he returned home he set to work on a patio for his newly purchased home in N.E. Portland.  His design was inspired afterreading the ‘Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra.  Not really knowing themethods of construction in Spain, he developed his own technique, setting thepebbles in a bed of wet mortar.

From here Jeffery honed his mosaicing skills by creatingmosaics whenever the opportunity arose, mainly making mosaics for friends andfamily.  It wasn’t until a few yearslater that he convinced a client in Northwest Portland to let him build apebble mosaic patio for him, along with a mosaic path and parking strippavements.  The patio is a 12 by 18 foot Persian Carpet. This patio wouldlater be photographed by Alan Mandell and Jerry Harpur of England, being published several times, and even making the cover of Landscape ArchitectureMagazine in August of 2005.

The Persian Carpet

 Suddenly Jeffery was not just a garden designer anymore, he was bonafide pebble mosaic artist as well, meaning that he could frequently incorporate these lovelymosaics into many of his projects.

Parking Strip mosaic Mother giving birth with the moon in her hair

Looking at one of Jeffery’s mosaic creation, one can beginto appreciate the time and effort that must have been put in to create it. Eachstone has been carefully placed by colour, shape and size to fit into these wonderfulshapes and patterns. But what one might easily overlook is that every single stonein each mosaic has not only been laid by Jeffery, they have also been painstakingly picked by him. 

Jeffery carefully selecting stones in a big heap of Montana Rainbow Pebble Mix 

 "I’ve spent a fairamount of my adult life gathering the materials needed to build thesemosaics.  Each pebble is selected for shape and sorted by color, whetherbeach combing or sitting on piles of rainbow rock in a stone yard.  I haveto look at every single one to discern whether it will fit amongst thethousands of it’s brethren."  Jeffery Bale 

'Council Ring’ fire pit. Most of the stone for this project was gathered from the beach below the property, giving it a strong connection to it’s setting.

Cyphers and Constellations in Love with a Woman, inspired by the paintings of Joan Miro 

One of my personal favorite pieces by Jeffery is actually the footpath below. It makes up part of a number of mosaics around one of his clients houses. The group of mosaics are inspired by the paintings of Spanish painter Joan Miro (including the mosaic 'Mother giving birth with the moon in her hair')

Molalla stone footpath with another mosaic inspired by Miro's work 

I love the simplicity of the footpath. The skilfully arranged Molalla flagstones are cut and tightly fitted together, with the gaps filled with pebble mosaic which connects to the other Miro inspired mosaics in the garden.  Jeff also cleverly incorporated gaps between the rectangle pads to allow for permeability in the pavement, and for the garden to flow through the work in planted lines.

 'The River of Life'

The ‘mosaicpilgrimage’ that Jeffery set out on back in 1987, is in fact one that hecontinues throughout his career. When ever the opportunity arises Jeffery setsoff to get inspired by the different cultures and mosaics from around theworld. 

Looking through his portfolio of work you can see much of what he hastaken back home with him from socking in these different cultures.

The Moroccan inspired Sunken Garden

Jeffery has a wonderful blog that I recommend checking out.In his blog Jeffery documents his ‘mosaic pilgrimage’ sharing many of the wonderful mosaicsites, architecture, culture and mind blowing colours from around the world. http://jeffreygardens.blogspot.com

Mosaic inspiration from Jeffery's blog

Moroccan inspired fire pit. The pit is built up of bands of pebble mosaic using black and gold Mexican beach pebbles, which are then capped with a band of eight pointed stars matching the other mosaics in the garden.  

Islamic Geometry in a small patio in one of Jeffery's gardens in Portland

Brazilian Carnival inspired mosaic parking strip

Lotus Step Stone Path.The lotus blossoms, alluding to a Buddhist Jataka Tale about Sidhartha Gautama being born, and having lotus blossoms spring from his footprints.

Full Moon Spiral Mosaic

There is much more amazing work by Jeffery that I was hoping to share with you, but as this post is starting to get quite long I will leave it at that. To see more information about Jeffery and more photos of his work check out his website http://www.jeffreygardens.com.

For a more complete and comprehensive look at Jeffery's work, I highly recommend getting a copy of his self-published book 'The Gardens of Jeffery Bale' This book along with other publications by Jeffery can be ordered online through the following link Books by Jeffery Bale

And don't forget to check out his wonderful blog http://jeffreygardens.blogspot.com.

Thanks to Jeffery Bale for his kind permission for the use of the photos and writings from his website and blog for this post. 

No commentsRead more

Once upon a fairytale garden

So it is a new year, and for many people 2012 is looking pretty bleak indeed. That is why I am re-posting this old post I did last year. This story can help remind us that even from the ashes of devastation and despair, life and prosperity will once again flourish.

Wishing everyone a very happy new year, and I hope 2012 brings you all good health, wealth, and happiness.  

Once upon a time in the hills of the great dividing range of Victoria on the edge of a town called Marysville there was a magical garden. In this magical garden mermaids rested on the sun baked rocks on the edge of cool stream’s while fairy’s and pixies danced in-between the trees as wise old men sat at the base of wise old trees.

Unfortunately for Bruno Torfs and the rest of us this is where the fairy tail ended as on the 7th of February 2009 a bushfire raged through the township, decimating everything in its path without mercy and sadly claimed the lives of many people. Bruno was extremely lucky to survive and the rest of the family are safe and well.

Bruno's home and art gallery were unfortunately completely destroyed in the blaze. The main attraction, the sculpture garden, was also damaged, but around sixty percent of the sculptures have survived.

The pictures of the aftermath show a very eerie looking place. The ghostly looking remains of sculptures look almost shell-shocked and traumatised, as from a seen from a town devastated by war.

Bruno has chosen to stay in Marysville to rebuild his home and restore the gardens. His passion to share his love of art and the story of life with the world has not been damaged by the fires, in fact you would almost say it has been forged anew by the flames that nearly took it all away.

But as with all good fairytales, this story two has a happy ending.
Bruno has been working tirelessly to restore the sculptures and the gardens to their former glory and after months of hard work he declared the gardens reopen on the 29th of November 2009.

Bruno's words: "The bushfires deeply touched us all in many ways. It allowed me to see that people had a heart for each other, that when things really got dark, the best in us comes out. We have lost a lot, but life also provides us opportunities to gain a new vision, lots of new friends and a blank canvas to play. In the meantime, nature is already regenerating itself. The green is slowly returning and the rivers are flowing, finding new ways".

All photos are from Bruno Torfs website

No commentsRead more