Category: New Works – Click on thumbnail to see full size image

TE DEUM
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.

Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I am able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.

Charles Reznikoff

60" x 60" x 10 gauge 

This sculpture began  when I tried to fashion a tree made of wood. The piece became incredibly heavy. Though tenuously clamped to a secure post in my workshop, it was difficult to secure. Twice it fell on me. Once it hurt. For weeks my hands turned to other projects.

Slowly it dawned on me that it would be quicker and safer to cut the tree from a sheet of steel using a plasma cutter. It was.  Hence the sculpture.

Trees have memories. Their rings catalogue in surprising detail a history of drought, disease, humidity, floods, DNA, fires, heat, cold, trauma and homes for all manner of creatures.  Call this sculpture a homage to trees.