Your Daily Awesome

Richard Reames of Williams, Oregon is an arborsculptor: He grafts, prunes, and bends sapling trees into sometimes-functional art. He’s the leading expert in the field, and he’s dedicated to teaching other people his craft and preserving the history of those who have sculpted living trees before him. Beside decorative trees like the one pictured above, he’s currently growing a boat and is planning on sculpting a house from living trees. His website is fascinating (if a bit wonky), and an interview with Cabinet Magazine, which includes photos of historical precedents for Reames’ work, can be read here.

What will happen to the sculptures as the trees grow?
There are two angles of approach here: growing for harvest and growing for longevity. When I grow a tree to be harvested, I cut it when it reaches its ultimate thickness. For unharvested trees, the amount of negative space in the design determines the how long it takes for the branches to meld together and swallow the design.

Trees are in transit, just like we are. They simply add annual rings every year and grow from their tips. They don’t push out of the ground. They’re actually very predictable, once you learn how they grow. They’re mellow kinetic sculptures. It’s a medium that embraces time, that forces you to think about what the tree was like when it was younger, and what will it be like when it gets older. People realize the value in an art project that requires years to take its ultimate shape.