Silver tree shines at East Austin Studio Tour 2011
I stumbled upon a marvelous sight while at the East Austin Studio Tour today: this silver tree by artist Foster Talge of Rival Metalworks. Unfortunately, I had only my cell phone camera, but I still want to show you.
Its galvanized metal leaves glint in the sunlight on flexible, weeping branches undulating in the breeze. Its brown trunk, smooth at the base, becomes bumpier, like a hackberry’s, at head level. The tree is magical, simultaneously lifelike and otherworldly.
I overheard Foster telling an admirer that he welded more than 15,000 die-cut leaves to the tree. (Click for a picture from the Statesman of Foster welding his tree.) The trunk is made of old shipping containers—recycling trash into art!
The artist said he was offered $15,000 for the tree two years ago but turned it down. This year someone offered him $30,000, and he thinks he may have his buyer.
I think the buyer is getting a good deal. Yes, it was that incredible.
The East Austin Studio Tour is open again next weekend if you want to experience the tree too.
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Fabulous! I hope to hit the tour next weekend with Greg!
Wow, imagining how amazing it must have been to stand under such a special work of art.
Oh!! Thanks for sharing! It’s like a tree in one of my childhood reoccurring dreams….
Now this is the garden art I’ve been waiting for!
You have expensive (and excellent) taste, Loree. 🙂 —Pam
Ooooooo!! So shiny and surreal! That is simply fantabulous! Love.
Amazing. It is so beautiful and it is drought tolerant:)
Wow…just wow!
Wow. Wouldn’t this make a statement in a garden. 15000 leaves, that is a lot of work.
I have heard that species is tolerant of sun or shade and is very xeric as well.
That is an amazing piece of art. Must have taken hours of patient work to weld all the pieces. I wonder if the leaves will turn brown in the fall! It would be a pity for them to lose their silver color. Remember the silver tree in Seattle Olympic Park, and it as just trunks?
I do remember that silver tree in Seattle, Jenny, and was opining to my husband that this one is better! —Pam
A silver tree – I seem to remember a song by that name. And silver to me is more elegant than gold, including when it is kinetic, as is that tree sculpture!
You may be thinking of “Two Silver Trees” by Calexico, David. It’s been playing in my head since yesterday. —Pam
Oh my Pam, that is an amazing piece, and you’ve made some wonderful photos, as always. Wouldn’t that work in just about any garden, anywhere?
That’s what I call upcycling for sure!! Beautiful and so unique.
Pam you got heaps of praise for your website this Sunday on the gardening shows on KLBJ radio. Well deserved. Congrats!
What?? So that’s why my ears were burning! Well, I’m sorry I missed the show, although perhaps my head would have gotten too big to fit in my hats. —Pam
Yeah, that’s a museum quality piece. 30 is a steal.
Amazing. And, good pictures…even if it was ‘just your phone’.
I went on the E.A.S.T. this past weekend but somehow missed this one. Now I’ll have to go again next weekend! Also, I was at Bookpeople this weekend and they have artificial grass in their parking lot. It’s only in one spot, where I assume they couldn’t keep anything alive. It looks pretty believable. I had to reach down and touch it to be sure. Still, I don’t think that’s the direction I’d go…
Thanks for the tip about the artificial lawn at Bookpeople, Charlotte. I’ll have to go check it out. —Pam
How otherworldly!