I was thinking of starting a “community-sourced” art project of sorts to try and recreate/preserve the tactile connection to people’s favorite trees. I typically do block/woodcut printing so I thought an impression/pencil rubbing and creating a print or carved replica would be most familiar. But then I was thinking it’d be more natural to just slap some terracotta against the bark and essentially create a cast, and then…? Idk let it dry? (I don’t know anything about clay except digging it up to make sun pots as a child lol).
What do you think? Have you heard of similar work? Any thoughts around mediums/materials with which to experiment?
As far as it being “community sourced” I was thinking of experimenting with it myself first, then doing a “citizen science” sort of project in the community, but maybe larger if possible. Seemed like a potential way to build some connection around seemingly common objects.
I was inspired by an artist that does block prints of local infrastructure he considers significant, a planning activity called “places of the heart”, and a big tree by the bus stop I use- an oak with 2” deep ridges
I also don’t know a lot about clay, like different types and stuff, but I can tell you that it is probably hard to get the clay off without fucking it up. I just can’t imagine clay coming off the bark cleanly and maintaining the details.
What if you used food safe silicone? It shouldn’t damage the tree and it’s very durable, so you could make a mold of the bark with it and then reuse it over and over with all kinds of materials. It picks up a lot of details too, it’ll get down into the gaps and everything if you do it right.
Great idea! I was thinking of experimenting with casting “stones” for another project using pink foam board - so I’ll have to expand my mediums to include casting with silicone as well lol