Save the tree concept:   Artist’s Statement

 The Wofford College project of providing an opportunity for local artists to make their own artistic statement from the campus’s disgarded trees was an exciting and challenging one.

 My concept started with a tree before it is cut down and through a process I call transvisualization I conceptually move the tree from its original location to a new location on the Wofford campus.

 With the assistance of Tom Rocks in the facilities department we searched the entire Wofford property for a tree that fit my needs and one that was marked to be cut down.

 I found a Mimosa tree hidden by other vegetation , not an award winning oak or maple but a simple tree, probably having its origin as an unplanned volunteer. A tree that would fall into the category  of weed and would have been chopped down long ago had it sprouted up in a more cultivated landscape. But this tree had balls and a presence that almost swaggered in the breeze. A common tree with an uncommon presence.

 I am giving this simple tree its five minutes of fame by making it the ”Monument to the Mimosa”.

 The monument consists of three branches taken from the Mimosa and reconstructed in the exact angle, height from ground, and position it possessed when it was alive and part of the tree now cut down. I photographed the original tree and located a transparency of this photograph an appropriate distance from the Monument so that one can see the original tree line up with the monument providing a Transvisual experience.

 I have brought this “Monument To The Mimosa” to the Converse campus, again extending its original location, utilizing the concept of Transvisualization

Mayo Mac Boggs, Sculptor

2003

CONCEPT DRAWINGS

FABRICATION AND INSTALLATION PROCESS