Myrl Jones
RADFORD – When our son Stephen was in the second grade, his teacher told us, “You must have his eyes checked.” When he received his first glasses, he says one of his memorable discoveries was that the green blurs on the trees were separated into leaves with distinct patterns of their own. He delighted in the new vision.
Now artists from the New River Valley will afford all of us the opportunity to delight in the wonders of the leaves with the exhibit “Leaves of the Tree” in various venues and media running now until Nov. 7, (hours Mon.-Fri. 10-5, Sat., noon) with follow-up events in the spring.
Guest curator John Bowles’s introduction to the gallery sets the philosophical significance behind the multiple-faceted aspects of the entire enterprise when he says, “Creation myths involving archetypal sacred trees appear thought world religions: the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis; the Quran’s Tree of Immortality; the Buddhist Bodhi fulfilling Tree of Enlightenment; the Taoist Immortal Peach Tree; the Hindu “kalpavriksha” (a divine wish-fulfilling World Tree); and innumerable trees worshipped as axis mundi (the earth and heaven’s central axis) by shamanic traditions worldwide. More secular yet equally meaningful trees include: each person’s “family tree” (outlining ancestral origins and interconnections between relatives); biology’s phylogenic trees (demonstrating the evolution of species); and various organizational trees—diagraming hierarchies, fruitful goals and complex systems.”
The Art Museum at the Covington Center on the Radford University campus is dominated by a large installation by Charlie Brouwer and Jennifer Hand, involving a large slab wood tree surrounded by life-size, hanging leaves sewn from fabric donated by friends, family and community members. Some of these leaves have special meaning for donors—a piece of the shirt of a lost loved one or paint rags from artists workshops. Thousands of leaves cut from newspapers published since March 13 with the pandemic was officially declared will be piled as if blown up by the wind suggest the detritus of our lives in the pandemic.
The tree and leaves reflect a recurring motif of the exhibit—our ambiguous relationship with trees. The wood in the central 23-foot high sculpture of a tree trunk is cast-off slab wood from saw mills where we have cut down numerous trees to make our houses, the house as a refuge but also as a cause of the destruction of forests hovers in the background of many of the works the gallery. The father-daughter team have an incredible similar sensibility that overlaps without conscious planning, such as in the two depictions of house forms (signaling centeredness, safety and belonging) encircled by leaves (suggesting the protective and restorative power of the leaves}, two paintings created by the separate artists without conscious coordination.
The shape of the gallery itself has been carefully incorporated into the vision of the exhibit. The curved wall resulting from the atrium outside the gallery has been rethought into a grid with smaller works playing with the themes of the exhibit. The high back wall has paintings hanging higher than usual; the images evoking the shadows of leaves in a canopy of trees.
The visitor must linger in the more intimate space of the alcove on the left with works by both Brouwer and Hand. Note map of the New River as it winds through Radford enveloped in real leaves and the quilt-like piece also made of real leaves. Meditate on the thoughtful texts of Brouwer’s paintings with such phases as “we will one day be like them memories rooted in earth” (some of the paintings even incorporate dirt from Floyd County). One piece is a display case made by Charlie’s father for his childhood insect collection but with the insect replaced by carefully pinned leaves.
Also, in the overhang space is a television screen with a looping video of Jennifer clothed in a dress of leaves collected on her land and soaked in wax to keep them pliable. She is strolling through the trees merging herself into the forest rather like a mythic forest spirit. Such a sense of immersion in nature is rather like the visitor’s own experience when walking around the central tree surrounded with the thousands of cloth leaves that hang from the ceiling.
The only collaborative father-daughter work is a painting by Jennifer of Burkes Garden encased in a triptych made by Charlie, evoking the religious tradition of this art form while transforming it into a statement about the human need to for communion with nature.
A complementary exhibit “More Leaves of the Tree” occupies RU’s Art Museum’s Tyler Gallery on Tyler Avenue. Local artists were invited to submit works made of leaves, depicting leaves, referring to leaves, or metaphorically about leaves. Over 300 works were submitted for this exhibit juried by Patrick Dougherty, a North Carolina-based sculptor renowned world-wide for his monumental environmental works constructed out to tree samplings. Dougherty selected 79 works for the exhibit. The pieces use a variety of media to carry forward the theme: paintings, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, photography, animated film, pastel drawings, stained glass and jewelry. One should be sure to note the shadows behind the tapestry on the back wall. The show demonstrates the wide-ranging creative spirit of New River Valley artists. Awards were given to selected artists at the September 23rd opening. Whitney Brock’s remarkably luminescent oil painting, depicting sunlight shining through yellow autumn leaves, won “Best in Show;” Ayla Mullen’s elegant ceramic “Flowering Dogwood Urn” won 1st prize, followed by Jeremy Riffe’s striking photograph of a tree boldly silhouetted against a delicate pink cloud—and Mary Lee Ruff’s large, meticulously rendered pencil and watercolor depiction of a country road in winter—won 2nd and 3rd prizes, respectively. Some of the exhibited works are available for purchase.
Professor Eloise Philpott has designed a leaf labyrinth, an ancient and mythic structure, to enhance a walking tour of trees on the Radford University campus designed by Professor John Kell. This walk has been used in biology, geospatial science, English and recreation and leisure studies classes to make students sensitive to some 80 species of trees they pass unconsciously every day. Visitors will be given an illustrated map of a variety of tress on the RU campus, including a white basswood tree determined to be the largest in the U.S. Strollers can experience the healing power of leaves for themselves as they move from one venue to the other.
The whole experience was enhanced by performances of dancers and musicians. Dancers Katie Meeks, Mailey Paupore, Sarah Kadel, Madz Rraine, Abigail Anderson under the guidance of Professor Deborah McLaughlin performed site-specific structured improvisation along part of the pathway. Under the direction of Wesley Young, RU Theater students (Logan Burnley, Shaly Farmer, Noah Polley and Sydney Pepper) perform short tree-inspired works by Robert Frost, A.E. Housman and other poets and writers. Musical performances were provided by the Highlander Honors Guitar Quartet (Octavio Deluci, Anthony Del Grosso, Jack Bradbury, Evan Daniels), the Electric Guitar/Bass Trio (Austin Eichelberger, Gavi Marchon, Graham Conway), and the full ensemble with Dr. Robert Trent. It should also be noted that the guitars are built from wood: sprue, cedar, ebony, rosewood, maple.
The theme will be carried forward into the spring with an exhibit entitled “Sprigs of the Tree” with art by area students who will submit works (with monetary awards to be donated to their respective public schools’ art departments). Selu Conservancy seven miles from the Radford campus will be the site of plein air tree painting workshops, led by Robin Poteet who has a painting in the Tyler Gallery exhibit, and Kathryn Myers, an art professor at the University of Connecticut. Charlie Brouwer has also designed a large wooden sculpture “Hedgerow,” a row of 25 dead and downed locust tree trunks attached with hardware at their crossing points. Silhouettes of animals, leaves, stars—all associated with Selu—will be scattered and attached along the length of the hedgerow. Walkers with be surrounded by the forest of Selu as they wind their way down to Big John’s Laughing Place, a seven-sided platform overlooking bend in the Little River as it winds its way to the New River. Here the theme of two “Leaves” exhibits will be amplified by the magnificent vision of the forest itself.
Recent research has demonstrated that trees communicate chemical signals through their roots. We are all connected and rooted in the physical and metaphorical qualities of the leaves of trees. They refresh our air with oxygen, decorate our world with a variety of shapes, and transform our lives with the symbolism of rebirth in the spring, the fading of life in the fall, and the sustaining of rebirth with their fertilizing new life.
“Leaves of the Tree” Sept 23 –s on display now through Nov 7, 2020 at Radford University Covington Art Gallery and the Gallery at 214 Tyler Ave.
To register to see the exhibit log onto:
https://www.radford.edu/content/radfordcore/home/reopening/visitor-information.html
