« The perfect place for masking fluid |Main | Fossils Chair, Homage to The Earth – finished »
The Tree Of Life chair
April 18, 2009
April 18th, above: still in an extremely rough state, and still deciding about which colors to use and how. There must be much more plaster on the Salish chair, because this one is not carving as well. Only the Shou symbol will stand out carved..all else will be implied. Blue, purple and green are the new black! Actually that’s the old impressionist trick of course, but I also rarely use black if those 3 will do – they are much livelier and more interesting than flat black. The Yin-Yang/Aboriginal legend snakes have been eliminated because working them in color-wise was going to be a problem. The Celtic design was getting lost in too much else around it. I am anxious to find another chair because I really want to do one with Australian-inspired motifs and colors.
Post-dated note: Unfortunately, there is not enough room to show this for the premier of the Trees show in Raleigh. I’m mostly relieved that there is extra time in my schedule now for preparations, but this chair now needs to be set aside in light of the other priorities.
April 14th: 29H x 29W x 29D inches vintage chair, canvas strips, layers of sanded plaster.
The design incorporates a few esoteric concepts common to many world cultures: Overall is the idea of the Tree of Life and the theory of As above, So below, represented by branches and roots. Symbolic of longevity along with the pine tree, and central to the design is the Japanese character, Shou. The branches and roots of the pine tree are interwoven in the classic Celtic style, inspired by designs in the Book of Kells, gospel manuscripts that were illustrated by Irish monks around the year 800 A.D., common era. Two snakes drawn in the Yin-Yang placement represent Australian Aboriginal legends; the Rainbow Snake is their most important sacred symbol, believed to be the creator of all things. Christian biblical literature it is the snake who gives the apple from the Tree of Knowledge to Eve. There are more, but the rest you may like to discover yourself!
There is still plenty of intricate work to do with the roots – this’ll be fun! Drawing freehand is much better than casting the original drawing on with light and tracing it because each time it’s drawn, first with graphite, then marker, then many layers of paint, I become more familiar with the lines and the final outline will be steady and clean.
April 7, 2009: While studying some of the previous paintings that are still in progress, I sketched out my version of The Tree of Life, a preliminary drawing for the fourth refurbished vintage chair, and have also been layering and sanding the plaster in preparation for it. Colors planned are black, off-white and greens. The other chairs in this series are shown here.
Categories: Art for sale, Chairs, design, digital pen, drawings, furniture, graphite, history/multicultural theme, innovation, mixed media, pencil, series, The Chairs series, The Majesty of Trees Collection | 9 Comments »
9 Responses to “The Tree Of Life chair”
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:06
This could become my all time favorite!
April 8th, 2009 at 11:06
Your approval helps Virginia. I could get more elaborate but simple is best huh? The colors will be the main challenge: carved black outlines and ‘Shou’ symbol, the branches and roots will look like antique ivory inlay, so it will have some burnt umber rubbed into it, black and ivory trim around the rim of the chair, and a nice green background, the shade I’ll have to play with as I go along…not sure if that will be forest green or a pale olive.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:06
This is so “you” – re: weaving together of world cultures, symbols and stories. I’ll be watching with anticipation….you always inspire me to try something new
April 15th, 2009 at 11:06
Thanks, Anonymous – is that you Karen? I’m watching with anticipation too, lol! One never knows exactly what the results will be.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:06
This should be called “The chair of reincarnation”. This chair has been around for a long time and I think has made more than a few artistic visions come to life!
April 16th, 2009 at 11:06
LOL! You’re right Adam, I bought two broken chairs in Ontario at a 2nd hand store and moved to Texas with them 6 1/2 years ago – it has taken this long to finally do something with them. I bought the other two here. If anyone has any or knows where I can beg for or buy them, please let me know. I have too many ideas and a limited number of chairs…this is the last one.
April 18th, 2009 at 11:06
WOW!! It’s coming along!
April 21st, 2009 at 11:06
Hi Nikki: Yes, “Anonymous” is me (Karen)….my laptop crashed a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t realize my name wouldn’t show up on my comments….so I’m not some weird stalker…
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:06
Hi all of you: I just found out that there will be no room for these chairs at the premier of The Majesty of Trees in NC, so work on this has to stop until at least mid-June. Thanks for commenting everyone. Karen, guess I’m not ‘there’ yet – you know you’ve made it if you have a weird stalker!