The Titanic of Trees

Posted on by Thor

Cole Nesmith and a small group of dedicated artists have been working on an interactive sculpture called “Tree of Light.” The tree’s inner structure is made of light weight aluminum welded together. Cole and Josh Owen had screwed hundreds of wooden boards, from discarded pallets onto the aluminum frame. The resulting tree must stand at least 20 feet high and must weigh several tons. It was a marvel of engineering. When I first sketched it, I referred to it as the Titanic of Trees referring to the shear size of the sculpture. Cole laughed. The tree’s unveiling was scheduled for February 2nd in Seaside Plaza on the corner of Church Street and Orange Avenue downtown.

On the evening before the unveiling, Cole and Josh worked all night long to get the tree built. A short interview done at 3:3oam that night showed the Tree of Light nearing completion. On the morning of the unveiling however, I got a Facebook message from Cole on my wall, “Unfortunately, due to damage to the structure this morning, the opening has been postponed.” I wondered what happened. Had a car hit it? Did the whole trunk just topple? I decided to drive past Cole’s place to see if they were doing work on the tree in his yard and then I drove downtown to Seaside Plaza to see if the structure was being fixed there. The only hint that the tree may have once been there were some orange cones and a small strip of electrical wire. The Tree of Light had vanished.

The next evening I went to an Orlando Philharmonic concert and Cole was there as well. He informed me that the owners of the plaza had called him the day before the tree was to be set up to express concerns they had about letting him place the art in the plaza. Though they had doubts, fearing litigation, the tree was erected anyway. The tree was near completion and the electrical wiring was being installed. Chris Clatterbuck was on a ladder working on the wiring. He shifted his weight and leaned on a branch. The welds gave way and the the heavy branch of aluminum and wood crashed loudly to the ground. No one was hurt. The owners of the Plaza now had their worst fears justified, so it is unlikely the tree will be set up there. They probably imagined someone gently pulling a chord to turn on a light bulb and then being crushed by a falling branch. Now that is interactive art!

Cole lamented the fact that he had contracted out the welding work for an exorbitant fee, and it was the welds that gave way. He said, “It was a punch in the gut when we lost the branch that morning. My greatest concern is that we’d lose the momentum we had gained. But, in reality, the pictures and video we got are actually generating more excitement than before. I have an architect working on a 3D rendering of the Tree right now. After that, we’ll be handing it off to a structural engineer to approve the changes and make sure we don’t run into this again. Then back to the metal shop to make the changes. My hope is that we’ll have it up before the end of the month.”

Tree of Light

Posted on by Thor

I was at the United Arts Grant Application meeting where I first heard of Cole Nesmith’s “Tree of Light.” The sketch I saw at that meeting left me thinking it was a small sculptural piece. He joked that he ended up spending way more than the $1,000 grant. I went to Cole’s place on Portland Avenue to see the work in progress. I couldn’t see house numbers but I knew I was getting close when I heard a power saw. Cole was cutting planks off of wooden skits while Josh Owen was holding the wooden palette steady. A large aluminum structure filled the yard. Struts rose up at angles from a metal plate and then branched organically. Electrical boxes were welded at the ends of limbs and at junctions. The aluminum glistened in the sunlight. A large cylindrical beam acted as the trunk. It would be bolted to the ground and the upper limbs would be bolted to the top of it. For now it was lying on the ground. I started sketching. It was a chilly morning. Cole confided that his roommate was a bit of a pyromaniac who collected abandoned Christmas trees from all over town to burn, but that is another story.

Apparently the day before, Cole and Josh had been prying boards off of palettes using crow bars. It was back breaking, exhausting work. “The saw improved our productivity by 500%.” Cole said. The job for the day was to start screwing wooden planks over the aluminum frame. Cole and Jimmy rejoiced when one whole limb was covered. They had tons of work to do. This was no easy process. The aluminum is light, but when all the wood is screwed onto it, it will become a very top heavy tree.

Chris Clatterbuck showed up with a box full of electrical supplies. It was his job to figure out the inner electrical workings of the art piece. He knew of me because of the sketches I did of the Singing Christmas Trees at First Baptist Church where he is an audio visual technician. He disappeared up onto the porch while the tree took form in the yard. A huge Live Oak tree spread its branches over the yard and house. I was impressed by the electrical relays Chris was working on. There were circuit boards and inner workings I couldn’t begin to grasp. Cole showed me the strings of diodes that would be inside mason jars hanging from the tree. When a pedestrian pulled a chord, the diodes would light up, looking like fire flies.

February 2th the Tree of Light will he unveiled in downtown Orlando. It tree will be at the Seaside Plaza at the corner of Orange and Church St from Feb 2-Feb 29. The launch party is at 8pm-10pm on Feb 2 and is open to the public! I’ll be there to sketch. I have to see how it all comes together.