the Pleasure Pier
the Hall of Fifty States
Exhibition Hall
The live oak at the courthouse has undergone, over the last twenty years, a number of "fixes," usually meaning the cheapest remedy available, and it's now destined to being cut down after two of its limbs have broken off, constituting a legitimate safety concern.
The current plan is to "save" the trunk by commissioning wood sculptor Marlin Miller to create an eagle out of it. He's made something of a name by sculpting "Katrina trees" in and near Biloxi, Mississippi. At best, some of his work is whimsical, and to his credit, he works with the natural shape of the tree to create his carvings. One of his signature pieces is located at the town square in Biloxi.
He transformed this dead tree
into this sculpture
I have no doubt that Miller's work will be received well by the community, and in that respect, I suppose it will be a successful work of public art (and there are much worse examples, for sure). But I am having a difficult time of it, as it seems a grotesque usage of the oak, a degradation, another cheap erasure. I think of all that makes use of a decaying tree, from the termites to the air plants and fungus to the woodpeckers and bluebirds, that slow heatening and releasing that is death, an old, old carbon breakdown.
So we break out the chainsaw, cut and hew a cartoon emblem, and it is clean, reassuring, and not the least disrupting, not the least ironic, not the least arresting. Yes, I am angry about it.
So, in translating the live oak to some digitalized coding, I realize my own hand in making use of the oak. I'm no better than Marlin Miller in that respect. No, I won't go Julia Butterfly on it, either, as the tree is too far gone to survive (the enemy here is the sidewalk and pavement, what modernized Oak Street into Main Street in Fort Myers, over 100 years ago). The county commissioners have done a good job of it, with plenty of hand wringing, gathering up of the acorns, and then doing nothing. The tree was to be cut down three months ago. Evidently the county has not the funds to finish the job.
I don't know if I'll ever make anything at all from the video (just the capture itself might be enough of a fugitive artistic response), but it exemplifies the kind of thing I'm after these days.
Great post and pics. :) I've never seen the Fort Myers Oak, but I bet the tree, dying or dead as it is, is still beautiful, just like the Biloxy tree above. The sculpture of that tree by Miller does seem to echo the original shape of the tree, but it also looks really cartoony and artificial, like something out of SeaWorld. I have a hard time seeing the "art" in it.
ReplyDelete- Allison
Yeah, Allison.
ReplyDeleteHe's really awful with the eyes, a kind of happy anime-winky-closed-eye thingie going on there. To be truthful, I really hate this kind of totem pole art. I like real totem poles, but this kind of thing is just so much empty fetish for me, and it really lacks any kick to make it kitschy, too.
To me, it's dreary, dreary, and maybe it makes it something fitting to be before the Lee County Courthouse.
WOW, can you believe what famous sculptor Marlin Miller just donated to your community? Photos of that breathtaking eagle in front of the Old Lee County Courthouse are already on coffee mugs, post cards and t-shirts. Your 4 local TV networks and 2 local newspapers have covered that story every day for the last 7 days. They say this sculpture is the new landmark for Fort Myers. Mr. Miller was surrounded by hundreds of people all week long wanting autographs and thanking him for this incredible donation. Board members from your university took the time to thank him for carving their mascot. Lee County Chairman Frank Mann(Barbara Mann Theater)will be working with the board to make this a new tourist attraction. I heard Mr. Miller may allow some of his museum pieces to be displayed in the theater. Seems unusual that you could find time in your busy schedule to criticize such a talented and giving artist. When I get back in town next week I think I'll send your blog to your institutions administration and the theaters management group. I'll bet they will get a good laugh out of your crazy comments. To be making posts like this, you must have incredible job security.
ReplyDeleteGood day, sir.
I decided to post your comments in a spirit of dialogue. I still find it telling that you continue to post anonymously.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in the original post, I anticipated this kind of popular reception and that the community would welcome it. The finished product, by the way, is as spectacularly cliched as I feared, and I still consider it an artistic abomination of a great oak tree.
About making posts like the above, I see nothing in my statements about the quality of Mr. Miller's sculptures to be all that charged or outrageous. You seem to be mistaking popularity for quality; by that measure, then, the likes of Thomas Kinkaide and Judith Krantz should be the exemplars of our cultural heritage. My own frame of reference in judging sculpture is colored by my own understanding of the arc of 20th-century artists, from Rodin to Moore to Calder to Lin. As an academic, I have a moral and ethical responsibility to honor genuine artistic achievement. That I don't join the media circus in applauding Miller's safe, charming, and trivial artwork is my small gesture for believing in some artistic standards.