REDSTARTstudio

“Cotoneaster lacteus I” is a maintenance-sculpture that I finished last week at Blake Garden. It measures approximately 7 feet high by 10 feet in length. As a volunteer at Blake, I was asked to remove 2 medium-sized limbs from a cotoneaster near the event lawn. I found several dynamic associative gestures in the limbs, which were twisting around one another. Beyond pure form, this piece, hand-hewed with broad axe and chiseled, suggests that of a praying mantis, stick bug, or scorpion. It is currently sited on a hill near the event lawn.

A maintenance-art-structure at Blake Garden begun in mid-June 2010, and completed in early August 2010. The clay mud used in this piece comes from the adjacent wetland area, the bamboo from nearby groves, and the grasses were mowed from the lower field in the Australian Hollow. After each building session (usually about 2-4 hours long) I have been documenting the progress in 360 degrees:

The recently established wetland at Blake Garden needed to be mucked out, so I have taken the opportunity to use the mud in the project. The initial frame was made out of golden bamboo. The mud for the walls has been mixed with invasive grasses that I mowed in the area around the structure. As the work progressed, I added more bamboo supports. Bamboo ventilation/skylight culms have been integrated into the top of the structure. The structure is impermanent; winter rain will wash away the mud clay re-exposing the internal structure, which I will then remove.

Tree climbers name trees that they climb especially Coastal Redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens.  I don’t think I will ever get the chance to climb these trees at Blake Garden but wanted to honor them in some way. Anita is probably the biggest and the oldest redwood in the garden and it made sense that Mabel, her sister would be beside her. Both women were the original designers and gardeners at Blake.  I measured the diameter of the trees and traced the outline of the trunk with a contour tool. The results seem to be reminiscent of a landform, a heartbeat or the sound wave of a song.

Video Montage:

Yesterday I finished a bench at Blake Garden. The legs and seat were hand-hewed from a large Italian Stone Pine branch that came down during the spring. The bench was sited looking towards the Golden Gate at the top of the Australian Hollow. I cut the legs at 26 inches, and buried them 9 inches under the grade. The bench is approximately 6 feet in length.

Lauri found a redwood board under the Bay Bridge about 8 years ago. For most of those years it has been leaning against the wall of our hall. A few years ago I carved the ichimatsu pattern on the top. Last week I finished another Cabinet for Nathalie at Grand Avenue Acupuncture Center and used the board for the top. Recycled redwood comprises all the woods used — some of which seems to have survived a fire at some point, and almost has the consistency of charcoal. This cabinet measures 45″ wide by 32″ tall and 11″ inches deep.

A garden-maintenance sculpture.  Earlier this month, I removed some Eucalyptus globulus stump sprouts from the retention pool above the wetland in the Australian Hollow at  Blake Garden. The sprouts were growing out of a large stump from a tree that was removed a number of years ago. We have been trimming them back each year. There were 10 sprouts in all, ranging from 8 to 14 feet. All of but one of the sprouts had opposite branching patterns. Curiously one had a whorled pattern with 3 branches emerging from each node. I began by removing the leaves and trimming each branch off at the first node adjacent to the main trunk. Next, I transported the sprouts to the top of the Hollow, and there decided to strip the bark off the trunks, leaving the red bark on the branches. Several days later I installed the 9 of the sprouts in the garden green house.

“C ACACIA” is the third collaboration-intervention between Peter Suchecki & Rusty Lamer at Blake Garden. This time we stripped bark from Acacia baileyana trees that had been taken down by another group project at the Garden.  By stripping the bark, soaking the strips in the creek and then tying the pliable pieces together we formed a 280′ rope that was then coiled around two ironwood trees on the ridge creating a screen that highlights the fantastic view of the Golden Gate.