Defining Green
Sculpture Exhibition
Russ Pitman Park
April 27 - May 2, 2011

It is Houston’s huge tree leaf canopy that defines green for me. I felt this tree stump oddly tall and without purpose, so I rehabilitated it with my own interpretation of coppicing. Coppicing interested me because it can make a harvestable, woodland crop out of what seems like a damaged life- a tree stump. 

Horticulturally speaking, when a tree is coppiced properly, many shoots emerge which are characteristically curved at the base, creating a woodland forest of sucker branches that create new, miniature versions of forestland.  Those many branches create tree canopies for every stump. A  coppiced tree will never die of old age, and can be coppiced repeatedly for its twig stalk and tiny branch material. If a tree is improperly coppiced by a human, like this one, it needs extreme care and tiny tethering to its nearest lifelike neighbor species in order for the tiny timber to grow new, however oddly shaped and twisted, landscape canopies.  jw

Thank you! 
Urban Artists
Sue Patrick and Anne Haass
Autumn in Houston, TX

Concept Drawing, Leafy Column