Autumn Birch

2011

Autumn Birch is an installaton sculpture created for a private residence in Northern Virginia. The owners asked me to propose a sculpture for the wall of their great room. The room's ceiling height of 18 feet left a large blank expanse, so they wanted something unique that would creatively fill the space and visually connect the window side with the kitchen and bedroom balcony side.

After some discussion, and looking at photos of the room, I thought that whatever I made would have to be tall, organic, and have a sweeping feel reaching across the blank area over the opening to the kitchen. In addition, the client wanted the work to have association to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, an area important to both of them. The end result, shown below, is created around the concept of a birch tree in autumn, with leaves blowing across the large expanse over the kitchen opening. Also included are symbols important to the client, as well as the intiatials of their children, their spouses, and grandchildren. It truly became a family tree.

before and after ...