The Impermanence of Wood #3

I love this campfire. It is metaphor for time, for the continuous cycle of seasons, for balancing light and dark. I like its reference to the transformative energy of fire, of birth death and rebirth, to the nature of uncertainty and for being human.
I’ve accumulated many memories together on paper in the form of drawings, sketchbook pages and years of letters -some from friends who have passed. With these papers, plaster, paint, and saplings, I’ve managed to create the sculpture called “The Impermanence of Wood #3”. This is its third rendition. Maybe this time I have accessed the words and heart to describe its complexity.
I began the project in the spring of 2022. I worked outside at a table making the logs under a favorite tree. To create the sculpture’s “logs”, “pinecones” and “smoke” I used several techniques to transform my collection of letters, drawings, and pages. I applied layer upon layer of paper mache strips (flour water salt pasted paper) over saplings for structure. I painted each one of those layers to imply annual rings in the logs. For the pinecones, I painted, cut, shaped and glued paper pieces together. To transform the repurposed papers into the appearance of smoke, I used the Japanese suminagashi marbling technique. When dry, I cut their rectangular shape into spirals and looped them to visually extend up towards the ceiling.
This visionary depiction of wood, stacked and smoking, is a reminder of relationship to our resources, their/our impermanence, the warmth of friends, grief for their absence, and love for the creative life.