art essay about a sculpture. EXAMPLE essay provided for reference. no plagiarism

Running head: TREE SPIRITS OF ST. SIMONS ISLAND 1 Tree Spirits of St. Simons Island Student Name Columbia Southern University TREE SPIRITS OF ST. SIMONS ISLAND 2 Tree Spirits of St. Simons Island If you have ever been to southeast Georgia along the coast, you will immediately notice the trees. Large majestic oaks, some of them dating back hundreds of year s, can be found at every turn: on streets, in the middle of streets, and in hundreds of private yards. These trees are alm ost synonymous with the South. The Sp anish moss that drips from their enormous and invasive limbs gives everything a mystical and ghostly quality, particuliarly when t he fog rolls in off the ocean. It is in this location that artist Keith Jennings has carved dozens of sculputres into anc ient water o aks. Jennings began his s culpting career in his backyard out of boredom in the early 1980s (Gallivance, 2012) . Using just a few simple hand tools, he was able to create a facial image, both fig urative and respresentational, that was recognizably human yet spritlike in essence. Of the twenty -odd sculptures that can be found on St. Simons Island and on the mainland , most reside on private property and were commissioned by the property owners. The handful of permanent public sculptures that exist wer e donated by the artist himself. Each sculpture is organic to it s specific tree: embedded in emerging from or nestled into it naturally. The artist uses the natural repetition of the tree’s shape and natural lighting to create depth and to bring each face to life. The craggly, worn suface of the trees give s the faces an ancient and wise look. I think it is interesting that the artwork “grows” with the tree. These nature sculptures will change while the tree changes. The face s really are part of the tree. M ost of these works are between one and two feet in diameter. While , legend has it that the faces are meant to memorialize the countless faces of sailors lost at sea, the artist argues ot herwise : "I don’t have that much to do with it. The wood speaks to you , ya know?” (Pinar, 2013 , para. 2 ). TREE SPIRITS OF ST. SIMONS ISLAND 3 Of the series, there is only one female, The Lady of Belle Point . Unlike her brothers, she is over two feet long and less than 10 inches wide. She resides in the yard of a female ship captain. The willowy Lady has a very siren -like quality and reminds me of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (Bottecelli, 1480). People do not necessarily come from all over to see the tree spirits. However, when people come to southeast Georgia, they will seek them out. Once you see one, you find yourself anxious to see another, and it is almost like a treasure hunt to discover a new one. I was mesmerized by these sculptures when I first saw them. Each one is sculpted to fit the specific chara cteristics present in the tree, and each sculpture is unique. Every time I see them, I see more intricacies in the details and imagine more about the spiri t that is represented. I f eel that each one takes on its own story. The sculptures inspire my imagination, and I can almost imagine the lives these Tree Spirits have had. Unfortunately, there is no public document that details and catalogs all of the Tree Spirits. Their titles are not posted, and their dates are left unpublished. Jennings does not have a Facebook page of all of his artwork , and the artist ’s website has been down for well over six months according to the Golden Isles Visitor Center (2013) . Rumor has it that Jennings will be back in St. Simons sometime in the coming months — hopefully to add another spirit to one of our majestic oaks. I hope one day someone will catalog all of the spirits and keep track of the changes that ta ke place while the trees grow. It would be interesting to see how the artwork chan ges with the life of the tree. Sometimes an artist ’s work is memorialized after some time. I am not sure that anyone would really be able to memorialize Jenning ’s work withou t harming the tree s. Also, if we were to cut off the piece of the tree that is home to the sculpture, i t might change the idea of the Tree S pirit. To me, the Tree Spirits will be ever present and changing . TREE SPIRITS OF ST. SIMONS ISLAND 4 (Jennings, n.d. -d) (Jennings, n.d. -c) (Jennings, n.d. -e) (Jennings, n.d. -a) (Jennings, n.d. -b) TREE SPIRITS OF ST. SIMONS ISLAND 5 References Botti celli, S. (1480). Birth of Venus [Tempera on canvas]. Retrieved from http://www.uffizi.org/artworks/the -birth -of -venus -by -sandro -botticelli/ Golden Isles Convention and Visitor’s Bureau . (2013). The tree spirits of St. Simons Island . Retrieved from http://www.goldenisles.com/lore -legends -of -golden -isles/tree -spirits -of- st-simons -island Jennings, K. (n.d. -a). The lady of Belle Point [Carved Water Oak ]. Retrieved from http://gallivance.net/2012/08/09/tree -spirits -of-st-simons -the -other -woman/ Jennings, K. ( n.d. -b). Untitled tree spirit 1 [Carved Water Oak ]. Retrieved from http://gallivance.net/2012/07/25/tree -spirits -of-st-simons -island -the -search -continues/ Jennings, K. (n.d. -c). Unti tled tree spirit 2 [Carved Water Oak ]. Retrieved from http://gallivance.net/2012/07/25/tree -spirits -of-st-simons -island -the -search -continues/ Jennings, K. (n.d. -d). Untitled tree spirit 3 [Carved Water Oak ]. Retrieved from http://gallivance.net/2012/07/25/tree -spirits -of-st-simons -island -the -search -co ntinues/ Jennings, K. (n.d. -e). Untitled tree spirit 4 [Carved Water Oak ]. Retrieved from http://gallivance.net/2012/07/25/tree -spirits -of-st-simons -island -the -search -continues/ Pinar . (2013). Sculptor releases mysterious spirits already in trees . 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