WHITE TEAR

Inspired by Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, I created an installation within a 40 acre plantation of White Pine trees in Solon, Maine. The trees were planted in a grid pattern typical of white pine plantations. I began in the center of the grid, and using paint I made from limestone powder and water, numbered 500 trees in a 250 foot diameter spiral pattern. The viewer enters the grove and sees the numbers on the trees, the numbers may overwhelm them, but as they follow the consecutive numbers they make their way to the number one and in doing so they realize that they have walked in a spiral pattern and can then find their way back within the spiral by following the numbers in the opposite direction. When I first walked through the grove I noticed clear sap oozing from the trunk of several trees as a result of a limb breaking off from the trunk perhaps from storm damage or deer. Realizing that all of the trees in this plantation would be harvested, it evoked some sadness in me and hence the title White Tear.