So we have an old willow tree in our front yard and the poor things trunk has been hollowed out by termites. It seems spindly and week and should probably be taken down but every spring it burgeons a fresh green canopy that me and the birds love and couldn’t imagine losing. The top canopy unfortunately also smothers the interior growth and you are left with a dangling tangle of brittle willow branches. So last Saturday we had a very brisk introduction to the fall season with cold strong winds on a clear night and in the morning the yard is showered with willow twigs. So of course I see this mess as a bounty, not a burden, and look for a way to play with all these sticks. It is a beautiful October day and I decide to spend a good portion of it gathering twigs and stacking them into the hollowed out trunk of the tree that produced them. I haven’t studied Zen but I have to imaging that this activity would have been appealing to those who have. The surrounding sounds of traffic seemed to fade, time was slow and the world was gentle. By the time my wife Amy got home I was almost done. Bless her heart she didn’t even question the activity and just got out of the car stating, “doing another Andrew?” Once again a reference to one of my art heroes, Andrew Goldsworthy, http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/ who’s nature produced sculpture can take your breath away. I hadn’t even realized how much time had passed so I took a break to put dinner in the oven and came back out to finish the sticks. Not sure if these pictures help explain the piece as it was as much an art work of process as it was of product.