Friends in Trees

I am now considering creating a sculpture/ series of sculptures that are full size human figures made from hollow molds of clear acrylic. These would be durable and transparent, and able to be placed outside. I would like to create these molds by using plaster of paris strips on a human body, so that the strips more or less weave in and out to create a form that both encloses space as well as is open to interaction inside. I want eventually for these forms to be placed correspondingly to fit into a tree, so that the space inside is penetrated by the central core of the tree. For a long time I have felt a kinship with trees as living beings, and also with the veinlike structures as reaching out/ groundedness, as the creative endeavor that is always growing, extending out of oneself while seeking calmness in the flow of being and creating. I think, similar to limited fork ideas, that our creative practices can only touch on a tiny bit of what is truly art and at work inside of us and in this universe. But nonetheless those tendrils we extend are what we have, and so we extend them into space, not knowing all that is there but holding faith in this noble act of creation. However, I am interested both in what is tangible as what is intangible, what is visible and what is invisible, what is tangible and what is all really there-- all that that may be. It is meaningful and there, and we are nonetheless reading these invisible things energetically and on subtle levels all the time. So I want to make a form that has open space within as well as the branching, and I want all these emotional and invisible realities to be able to be read by participants through tactile expression. First, there is the reading of the space differently by seeing a human figure there. Then there is the reading of what is seen and what is invisible, the empty space inside that makes you aware of also the air that is living within us and around us always. The correlation of the self with the tree, with the atmosphere, with the entire moving world. And then there will be these nests inside the form that I create, with objects in these nests that represent sacred parts of myself, so people can perhaps reach inside and interact with these nests, but also perhaps the sculpture will have similar objects outside of him or herself, or those objects will reflect the natural world around because there is this similitude between internal and external realities that I am very aware of and interested in. So these are the things in my head, I will continue sketching and making adjustments as I go but I am very very excited! I'm calling this friends in trees because I am also interested in people seeing themselves mirrored in these human forms, just by the same form they take, and becoming aware of the spaces and branchings inside themselves. I think there is a kind of kinship that can be afforded by these relationships in form, that can cause pause to one's day to think about our relationship to the natural world and to one another (when eventually I plan to make many such forms, where interactions will be present and visible). Also, there is a continuity to placing a sculpture outdoors with living things, that one day eventually, this sculpture will become overtaken by the life inside it- the tree- and will literally become it, as we ourselves who live with all this creativity inside us connects us to this life force that is endless and universal, and which when we die we will be wholly integrated into that lifeforce and continue growing as we become finally it- no longer any separation. Oh, the truths in this are expansive and so exciting to me right now!!! Onward! and Upward! Woohoo!

End of 'Song of Myself', Walt Whitman

52

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me,

It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,

It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,

I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Limbs of Light, 1/17/13

I'm thinking a lot about what tactile experience I want to create, both for me as the artist in making this book, and for the audience in how they experience the book.

I want to make something very physical in all ways, and right now I'm looking at the human form and creating a free standing human sculpture. I want to allow for space inside, and for the form to be open to tactile experience. I'm fascinated right now with bones as hollow, as are birds', and how much sticks and wood and branches resemble their hollow bones to me.
Or how a tree is living and breathing and growing as is a human being.
I would like to find a form in nature that could be sculpted to the human form, but the branching structure is often difficult to work with in that kind of detail- perhaps a bush would be a good idea, with all its branches I could cut at various lengths and create a human being in that way?
Or, I could construct one out of found branches, today I used modeling clay as joint connection for sticks and branches, and I could create a sculpture in this way. Even using cement, or some kind of natural cement from very sticky muds I find by the river or something- basically unrefined clay. I would like to stick to the organic and found sources as much as possible.
*I want to create nests inside of this form, and inside of this place objects, scraps of paper, that relate to specific moments and have a sacred or gravitational significance to me in my experience. I will write this book by choosing and placing these objects.
It may be located outdoors, next to real trees, as a way of inviting people to feel the writing and the sacred not only in a designated 'book' or 'piece of art' but also in everything- in the bark of trees, in their leaves, in the natural and manmade world that surrounds them everywhere. Or/ and I might make a living piece such as a bush sculpture which can be moveable and placed into an indoor realm, such as through planting into a large planting pot.

So many many options! But I am still very much moving forward with these ideas of joints, of limbs, of space between and living and growing and connecting, of nests, of hollow bones and showing the space within through tactile experience.

Walt Whitman quote of the day, from 'Song of Myself'"


I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world. 
!!:)

hollow bones

nests

modeling clay joints

chinks of light

limbs of light

tent structure, with me inside

peering through a hollow tree nob

This is beautiful- I might like to create the sculpture from a living red dogwood bush.

Walking, Reading the Bonisteel: in-class walk 1/17/13

Our walk today:

 Teagan's first day

 Rachel's Awesome Hat!

 bird or bone?

 oxidating iron

 nest structure

 climbing treeeeez!

 connection/ divergence spot

 'hello!'

 ice puddle!

 du break the ice, haha

 tension holds it together

 sycamore? the bark. #2

 :)

Limbs of Light: Chinks and Luminosity

These images are from my inspired walk today, as well as a few from last week after it rained- the translucency/ richness of all.