The Creation of Trees

Photo by Mel Vyvyan

I was recently commissioned to design and create some metal sculptures of bonsai trees for a friends wedding to be used as center pieces. We had been hanging out at our apartment when they noticed a sculpture I had done with some scrap metal and asked if I could build a bonsai tree. I said I’d give it a try and see what happens. I went into work on a Friday and experimented with a design that failed miserable. I pondered this for a few days and then tried again. This time I was more satisfied with the outcome. I took some pictures and sent them off for approval. I got an enthusiastic thumbs-up so I built seven more for a total of eight metal bonsai trees.

When you work in a shop with a bunch of guys using big tools around giant trucks, you have to resign yourself to some intense questioning when you start doing anything remotely artistic. There are questions about what you are trying to do, why you are doing it, what your sexual orientation is, and whether or not you are going to “flounce about” when you are done with your artsy fartsy nonsense. This interrogation was done all in fun and everyone wanted to know how they came out and wanted to see pictures of them.

I am now going to get a little artsy fartsy with you now. Much like the traditional method of trimming and coaxing the vegetation into a desirable shape, I found that creating these metal renditions produced a similar meditative experience. As I heated and bent the steel this way and that, something occurred to me. These trees could be viewed as a representation of how we must work not only at relationships, but also life. The paths we take from beginning to end are often strangely curved with little reason other then by the will that guides it.

Creating these trees was methodical; each one consists of a 4” by 4” square channel base, a 16” length of steel rod and a 6” length of ¼” steel rod. Each tree was welded with the same machine; heated and bent by the same guy with the same torch, and most were bent on the same day yet each one is different. There are no two alike. Each tree was a different path in the same direction toward the same destination.

The last realization I had occurred while putting the “foliage” on the trunks. After I had welded and bent them into shape I painted them and tossed them into my car to take them home and finish them up there. They were chunks of steel that I could have dropped out the window on the freeway and suffered little more damage that some scraped paint. However as I started sculpting the tufts of steel wool the entire tree took a breath of life and instantly became very delicate. This is an interesting idea. Aside from the epoxy agent used to hold the foliage on the trunk, this tree is entirely made out of steel. Steel stock can be extremely strong and difficult to damage, while steel wool can be easily pulled apart and destroyed. A person could view love and relationships in a similar way. Love can be so strong it convinces a person to live when everything else is against them and yet a relationship can be destroyed in a few simple words.

As I was working on these I took some photographs and video footage because I wanted to make a “Behind the Tree” episode for the Newlywed’s. The bride is a known “Star Wars” fan and the Groom is a “Firefly” Browncoat if I ever met one so I used these elements in the movie. I have waited until after the wedding to post this so that they could have this to themselves for their special day. It was a great honor to do this for them and I thank them for the opportunity.