To me, all living things have a natural flow and energy within them. Sometimes this is hidden and the intention for this piece was to represent the flow of energy that I felt from the trunk. Using twigs that were gathered from under the tree (and therefore part of the life of the tree) I arranged them in the form of a slow spiral on the ground. This represented to me, the flow of energy in the roots of the tree, which were invisible to me, but were still part of the essence of the life of the tree.
This is a Beech tree which is about two feet in diameter at the base. This is an indigenous tree to this island and it feels right to use trees of this nature. They reflect the ancient nature of the places that I work. This tree’s forefathers were here when my forefathers were here
The bulk of the sculpture is made of larger diameter sticks laid in the spiral pattern and these have smaller diameter twigs that are broken into approx. six inch lengths and laid on top. One of the things that I have come to appreciate in making this sculpture is the way that many small items laid carefully can become pliable when worked in this way.
The theme of the vortex around the tree is really powerful. The material that forms the vortex came from the tree and will eventually rot down and return to the tree, creating new life from old. It also is a powerful reminder of the way I feel when doing this kind of work, that it becomes almost like an addiction and gradually draws you into it. The nearer to completion the sculpture becomes the more I understand about the nature of what I am doing. This is what I enjoy – the creation of something where there was nothing before.
On the first day I had to give up after about 3 hours due to the cold wind coming up the side of the hill. On the second I managed to finish it. Pretty well ran out of material in the immediate vicinity so it came to a natural stop anyway!