earth day today, 22nd April......

universityofthetrees.org

Friday 22nd March, University of the Trees hosted an Earth Forum at UCA.
We need to develop 'new organs of perception' if we are to hear 'the great suffering of nature' and begin to work like artists in the world'. 
University of the Trees quotes Joseph Beuys, and encourages participants through Social Sculptural events to rethink not only what we see but how we see.
We considered the Earth and how we perceived it, and how we could influence it.

At the end of the afternoon, the Equinox tree received a gift of earth from participants.

It's arrived......

First day of Spring today, number 1981 arrived safely at 8.30 am on the back of a pick up truck. A new tree, a new life, a living sculpture, a symbol of continuous transformation of life, society and ecology.

By engaging with staff and students, the planting event became a social sculpture, and one which will endure in time as a stimulus.

Spring Equinox Event, 20th March 2013.....latest

Spring is in the air, the temperature is rising, birds are singing, and number 1981 is primed and ready to join UCA.

Just a small matter of getting sign off for my site-specific proposal now.

Sculpting with a living mutable form to reconnect man with nature, the wishing tree of life, coming soon to a campus near you.

All welcome to help plant my baby, 20th March, 9am-11am, main front lawn.

Treelife....onetree.....degree show......

Working now towards degree show, one tree in, one tree out, connecting the Site and Non-Site. Hauling wood around the campus, getting into position......Raw wood as material, nature's essential life force with its own eternal language.

Lichens

Tree surgeons arrived on UCA campus last week to cut out deadwood from mature Horsechestnut trees in the car park. A key opportunity for everyone who loves working with wood to scavenge.......

getting to the heart of the matter

i chip away

layer by layer 

revealing depths and details 

no one has seen before

layers built up over time

giving strength and protection

i need to get to the heart of the matter

wood that i could

i eat away at it

it eats away at me

i feel exposed, vulnerable

but I know inner truth is there 

wanting to peek out

Spring Equinox treelife Event..........

Feeling the cold wind, seeing the stark winter trees, can't help but get excited about the forthcoming Spring. The March Equinox this year is Wednesday March 20th at 11.02am.

Watch this space for treelife event at UCA.

Feeling chipper

Dissertation in the bag, fully focused now on creating Degree Show work.

The sun was out today so back to the Wood Quarry, carving green oak.

white and black

Monday 14th, snow changed the dynamics.

Charring wood in the freezing cold provided contrast.

The outdoor studio has its challenges.

Beech Bole

alongside architecture: sculpture in the expanded field

beech bole

The bole, or trunk of the beech tree has smooth grey bark, hiding the fantastic colours and patterns that can be found inside. The tree can grow to a height of about 100 feet, and a girth of 20 feet. 

This magnificent specimen was growing in Blean Woods, but had been attacked by disease and was rotting from the inside out. It had become a danger to passers by, and was recently felled. Details and forms were exposed, giving rise to sculptural possibilities.

With the rotting heartwood cleaned away, the furrows and forms fascinate. 

Why Wood?

I am interested in the way a material can express an idea, and have a concern and passion with mainly natural materials, how they exist visually and how we can recognise the forms and functions they adopt. Wood found in the local environment, whether in its raw state, or having been previously worked and discarded by man, is a key source of material for me.
I like to grapple with its sense of spirit and consider sculptural responses to it.
Despite their great age and size, trees exist on a human scale, the mutability of wood seems familiar. Mans's close relationship with wood is about relativity and symbolism, of time and affinity, nature's life force.
The local environment is dominated by woodland which has been a partner to man for centuries. I am currently involved in a deep exploration of wood as a material and motif, connection me to the space around me.
The textures and forms found in the trees and forests have profound influence on me and the art I create.

re-connection

I aim to re-connect man with material, nature and culture

influence

I am influenced by the local environment and make artwork that connects with my experience and understanding of a sense of place as 'site'.

Philosophically, man's loss of contact with nature concerns me, people seem too busy with technology and the work ethic to notice the detail of their natural surroundings. I want to create viewing experiences which act as a dialogic moment between art object, environment and viewer at which all three become participants.

The viewer is invited to touch and feel the objects, and engage in the ongoing sculptural processes.

 

environment

external conditions or surroundings in which plants or animals live which influence development and behaviour, the state of being environed.

Wood Quarry

'Wood Quarry' is an outdoor studio, woodyard & display area; a performative approach to sculpture in the environment. Some wood will be sculpted to find new forms, some will be charred, some left in natural state, some stacked, sawn, sorted, shaped. Resolved and unresolved. Open to view at all times with performative engagement times advertised week by week. 

Welcome to the 2013 treelife blog at UCA

I've reached a critical position with regard to my artistic practice and my Degree Show development, and decided to focus on treelife and wood. The 'Site' at UCA  continues to provide a rich inspiration for me; it's past history as a greenfield  parkland site with mature trees, echoing the local wooded environment and past roots. A sense of 'Place'.