Sculptures by JMikk

A very large elm tree uprooted on my cousin's tree farm.  As usual, I was attracted to the root and any crotch structures since my experience is that these parts of a tree have the most interesting grain features.  The roots were badly decayed and broken and therefore not very useful.  Likewise the 2 crotches were badly broken as the attached limbs had taken the crushing force on impact. 

But on one of the leads was a feature which instantly spoke to me as an animalistic face.  It was formed from a tree's way of dealing with a dead branch: try to grow over the wound left by the dead branch falling away.  To add to the facial appearance was an "eye" formed by a woodpecker exploring for ants or borers in what was a hollow part of the tree.  I sculpted the log upside-down; when you look up into the “face” you’d be actually looking down to the ground as the tree had grown.  Inside the face you can see very irregular surfaces, the evidence for the tree’s attempt to heal such a large wound.  The top is hollow so you can actually put your arm up through the opening.  I shaped the sculpture around the obvious “face”; the edges are carved out to be the side of the head; and to complete the animalistic form I sculpted a chin and neck, and terminated the form with leg-like features.

Elm, 42" x 15" x 14"

Warriors Mark, PA

Proboscis