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.

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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

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This year for National Tree Week, why not let the trees do some art!!!

So it's National Tree Week again here in Ireland! Last year in my post Grow our own chairs for national tree week, I instructed ye all to go and create some art by growing a chair out of trees. (I have yet to hear from ye how that went). So this year, why not let the trees themselves make some art!

Picture from last years post 'Grow our own chairs for national tree week'

This is precisely what British artist Tim Knowles did back in 2005 when he started his series of art pieces, simply called ‘Tree Drawings’ Tim’s idea was to create a series of drawings produced using drawing implements attached to the tips of tree branches, the wind’s effects on the tree is then recorded on paper.  Like signatures, each drawing reveals the different qualities and characteristics of each tree.

All of his works rely on the logic of cause and effect, as a map of time and a record of actions governed entirely by chance.

 

Tree Drawing - Weeping Willow on circular panel [100 pen] 2005

Above, 100 pens attached to the branches of a Weeping Willow tree draw onto a circular disc 5.1 metres in diameter and made up of 10 segments.

Larch on Easel #1 2006

Scots Pine on Easel #1 2006

Similar projects by Knowles include his Vehicle Motion Drawings, where he constructed an apparatus to capture the motion of a car being driven, all the turns, stops, and starts of the vehicle move the pen over the paper. Another is  his postal projects, which capture the motion of packages sent through the postal system, using both drawings and photography.

Greek Pine on easel #1 2005

I think my favorite work of his is titled ‘Nightwalk - Valley of Rocks’.  

Nightwalks are a series of illuminated walks that Knowles created in the countryside during a new moon (to ensure complete darkness).

One of Tim Knowles contraptions

Over the period of an hour, the artist walked away from the camera while carrying three wide-beam torches fitted with diffusers. The lights are connected to a 12volt battery in a backpack to prolong their life. His path, along a precarious rocky ridge in the darkness, was illuminated and captured using a long-exposure, large-format photograph. The direction in many of his walks are also dictated by the wind by using various contraptions that plot the direction of the wind.

Nightwalk - Valley of Rocks 2008

Photos and info from Tim Knowles website. Be sure to check it out to see more of his amazing work
http://www.timknowles.co.uk

So it's still National Tree Week for a few days and there are still a number of events on this weekend right around the country. To find out what in happening in your area, follow the tree council of Ireland link http://treecouncil.ie/

2011 also happens to be the International Year Of The Forest. You can find out more about this here http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/

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Grow our own chairs for national tree week

 1987 Peter Cook

As it is national tree week here in Ireland (7-13 March) at the moment, I thought a tree related post would be appropriate. So what better way to celebrate national tree week, than growing your own chair out of trees!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately as I am currently renting a house in the centre of Dublin city, so I am unable to get to try this out myself, during national tree week, but as soon as I have time to head out to the home place in the heart of the country side of West Cork, I will be heading to our local nursery (which coincidentally, happens to be one of the best in the country www.futureforests.net/) to pick up some native trees to give this a go. If you click on the picture below, it will take you to a page on ‘Arborsmith Studios’ website where you will see instructions on how to create one of the magnificent chairs.

Click on the picture to see instructions by arborsmith on how to create a tree chair.

When researching for my living willow structures post, I came across many of these living chairs.

The idea of creating these fantastic structures has been around for some time.

Richard Reames creations

Probably one of the earliest depictions of a living chair is in a painting by Jean Perreal, from 1516 called ‘Dialogue between the Alchemist and Nature’.

‘Dialogue between the Alchemist and Nature’ by Jean Perreal 1516

 However probably one of the first people to give it a go, was bank president/cheese maker and naturalist, John Krubsack (1858-1941) who, unsatisfied with ordinary furniture said “Dammit, one of these days I am going to grow a piece of furniture that will be better and stronger than any human hands can build.” And that is precisely what he did. In the spring of 1907 he planted 32 box elders trees, then the following spring he gradually began to train the young stems to grow gradually in the shape of a chair. After the seventh year all the trees were cut, making in all eleven years from the time the seed was sown until the chair was finally completed.

John Krubsack 1908

Following him in 1925 was arbor sculpture and creator of the tree circus, Axel N Erlandson.

Axel N Erlandson 1925

Some of the more resent contributions include Peter Cook, (pictured at the beginning of the post) who in 1987 asked himself, "I wonder if I can grow a chair?" The answer to this question is evident in the picture at the top of the post.

More recently in 2000, sixty year old Chinese chair designer, Mr. Wu has been shaping elm tree branches into chairs. It takes Wu about five years to grow a tree chair, during which time he constantly trims and guides it into shape before harvesting it. He currently has one tree chair in his home, and six more in production.

Mr. Wu 2000

Although there are many more examples, the final example I will mention is Arbor smith and sculpture Richard Reames, (the guy who’s instructions above you all will be using to plant your own chairs). Richard opened Arborsmith Studios (A tree nursery/art studio) 1993. He has grown many of these chars, and in 1995 wrote a book on the matter, simply titled ‘How to Grow a Chair’

Richard Reames 2000

So I hope ye are all inspired now, and that you all go off now on this national tree week to continue on this tradition started over 100 years ago!

Happy planting

There are still a number of events on this weekend, right around the country. To find out what in happening in your area, follow the tree council of Ireland link http://treecouncil.ie/tree_council_national_tree_week.htm

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