I am pleased to announce that I have been chosen by the members of the 7,000 Evergreens project to produce a series of commemorative sculptures for the 7,000 Evergreens project, to be shown at the Mason Gross Galleries in an exhibition this upcoming Fall. The sculptures, titled collectively as The Arthur Grunewald Commemorative Sculptures, will honor the accomplishments of a pioneering artificial tree planter through poetic combinations of artificial evergreen trees and various states of living and once living trees. I will post more information and some photos as the commission develops. Art has also promised to find us a photo that his friend took of him planting artificial evergreen trees back in 1955. What a treasure!
A little background on Art, courtesy of 7,000 Evergreens:
By 1955, Arthur ‘Art’ Grunewald had become a celebrated war hero, fighting in Italy during World War II, and a popular fish and game ranger back in America after the war. But if this weren’t enough, that year Art decided to make history with his novel idea to plant artificial trees outdoors, permanently!
In one of his meadows on his property in Brownsville, Vermont, Art planted 50 silver artificial evergreen trees that he salvaged from the warehouse of Treeluxe, Co., a recently bankrupted tree manufacturer in Ashtabula, Ohio. By doing this, Art became the first person on record to have planted artificial evergreen trees permanently outdoors. Thus, we have decided to honor Art with a series of commemorative sculptures.
