Furniture

This is a small laptop table that I made for my mother from the sacred tree that used to live next to our home. To me, the natural decoration on the table top represents the journey of the soul, where it begins submerged in a unified womb encapsulated by a protective placenta....eventually a day comes when it journeys alone through individuality, leaving reverberating waves of destiny. (The wood is from a linden tree (basswood) and is finished with shellac. Thanks to Stephen Kaye for teaching me how to fasten the legs)

(Wood, part 1) Last summer when my sacred tree fell, I felt my soul uprooted and torn and as I dug through that debris, I found a dream to salvage the wood to create something beautiful. In that year I met many new friends who taught me the art of woodcraft. Two weeks ago, a few of them assembled in my backyard with the mission of cutting planks from a large piece of the trunk that was being slowly consumed by the salivating teeth of mother nature. Here, two of them examine the twisting curves of the trunk, determine the best angle to cut. We used poles to rotate the trunk and pieces of wood and stone to keep it still. Using a level, we roughly made the trunk parallel to the ground.

(Wood, part 2) Cutting a plank from the side would be difficult because it was hard to see the guidelines and because the trunk was extremely wide. So, they first made perpendicular cuts with the chainsaw that connected the guidelines on both sides

(Wood, part 3) Next, Stephen, used a hatchet to remove the pieces of wood between the chainsaw cuts.

(Wood, part 4) Once the chainsaw blade was able to fit into the gap, they cut parallel to the ground. With each incremental piece of wood that came out, they checked to see if the surface was level.

(Wood, part 5) Once the surface was revealed, they placed a ladder on top and attached a sort of jig that slid across the ladder. On this jig was a metallic arm that held the chainsaw horizontal, allowing us to cut a plank of roughly uniform width.

(Wood, part 6) After hours of hard work, they were able to cut a few breathtaking slabs and honor a fallen tree. In the early years of my life, I incubated myself within my own universe where I bled and healed mostly by myself and created a self sustained source of happiness. Since then, I have been learning the beauty and importance of creating collaborative communities of people that span across generations, cultures and beliefs. As we stand next to a tree that perhaps saw the American Revolution (because it is probably hundreds of years old and lives in Lexington), I feel that the prosperity of the young United States of America lies in developing the American Identity by creating collaborative communities like these.

After MasterTreeIII fell and I refused to let its body parts be sacrificed for firewood, I was left with human sized pieces of trunk. What would I do? How would I honor my tree? I had no knowledge of processing wood or doing woodworking. Thankfully three tree-angels came to help me: Jan, Stephen Kaye and Alberto. With their help and wisdom, we were able to chainsaw massive slabs. In this picture, I used an electric planer to flatten the slab which one day will become my dinning table. While working, I created a huge volume of wood shavings. What will I do?

I am trying to create a storyline that connects every decoration in my house. Today I'll talk about my dining room. Our main doorway to the outside world is through my dining room and so, thematically, I wanted to represent the Sun and the Moon and the cycles of Nature. On the left side I have a divine trinity, the first represents the Sun (creation of life) the middle is an 'Om' and represents the sustained vibrations of the universe (maintenance of life) and on the bottom is the natraj which represents the dance of life and death and the transfer of energy (death of life). This trinity is echoed in the three baskets and everything is a copper color to represent the sun. The right side is represented by the Moon. At the top are 3 blue evil eyes and on the bottom is a vaginal dream catcher that I made to represent the womb of mother Nature. In the middle is a wooden coat hanger that I made, from my Sacred Tree III, to represent the Earth. The color theme is blue which is represented in the evil eyes, the dream catcher and the spalted color in the wood.

For a year, wood from my fallen Sacred Tree III (a linden) sat being slowly consumed by Mother Nature as fungal tongues flowed through the fibers leaving a dark blueish pigment. I had wanted spalted wood for my coat rack because it was going to be placed on a wall that represents the Moon and I wanted the Moon's midnight blueness to drip into the wood. I also chose a log that had knots (to the left) and a crotch (to the right) so that I could see swirling starry-night-like fibers within the wood. The brownish-red marks, I believe, are protective marks made by the tree. To preserve the natural nuanced shades of white, yellow, red-brown, and blue, I chose to finish the piece with a water based polyurethane which very minimally stained it (suggestion thanks to Alberto P). The coat rack was expertly mounted thanks to Stephen Kaye who taught me how to pre-drill holes and then screw it in behind the the hooks to make it seem like the coat rack was magically attached to the wall. The hooks I obtained from my old coat rack which I grew up with.