Tree stumps converted to sculpture

Meet proto-hipster LeRoy Jackson (Airman 2/C), father of the art movement that lead to yarn-bombing, lego-building repair, space invader tile mosaics, and other forms of guerrilla urban art.

How to use tree stumps

• [DeS11]

  LEEEEROOOOOYYYYY JACKSON!!!!

  I’m in a mood, and it had to be done.

• [Jason Baker]

  Here in Chapel Hill, we had a sanctioned version of the same concept. Our (now former) town economic development officer happened to be an accomplished woodworking artist, and when a tree downtown was damaged during the celebrations after the Tar Heels won the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, he made the best of the situation.

  http://www.downtownchapelhill.com/news-happenings/2012/2/23/goodbye-basketball-sculpture-we-hardly-knew-ye.html 

• [California Powers]

  The rest of the digitized issue is a fun read, too. The previous page goes on about a declassified missile guidance system guided by pigeons. Page 220 mentions Cold War “loony gas” bombs, some of which could contain LSD!

• [Aaron Gilliland]

  That well-chiseled bust made me wish I had a stump.

• [awjt]

  I’m just curious why he chiseled the bust of a dapper white man?

  • [Aaron Gilliland]

    He didn’t want to chisel an albino black man out of white wood.

    • [awjt]

       There’s always cherry.

      • [Aaron Gilliland]

        The danger of chiseling cherry is that you might pop right through it.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Because he’s in the military and that’s a bust of some camp commander or other poobah.

    • [awjt]

      & the only legal way he’ll ever get a chisel into that fargin ba$t%!*@’s head!

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Or perhaps that’s a commander from whom he already got some head and he’s just returning the favor.

• [Baldhead]

  Truro, NS does something similar- only they decided to leave enough of the tree for proper statues. http://www.truro.ca/truro-tree-sculpture-project.html

• [penguinchris]

  At the university I went to for undergrad, the University of Rochester, a large dead tree had its top half chopped off and a large and rather evil looking yellow jacket wasp (the school’s mascot, though it usually is friendly looking not evil) was carved into the top. It was stained and varnished which made it look even more evil somehow. 

  It was chopped down completely within the past couple of months – I was there in February for one reason and saw it, and then was in the area again a couple weeks ago and wanted to show someone the carving and it was gone! It must have been there for quite a long time, so it was disappointing. And I can’t find a photo of it on the internet (though I don’t blame anyone, I was at school there for four years and I never wanted to take a photo of it).

  The moral of my story is that if you use a stump rather than wood removed from the ground, it’ll probably rot out within a couple decades.

• [StAlfongzo]

  I was wondering the same thing!

• [Thorzdad]

  There are lots of people around here who make a side-living carving tree stumps. They use chainsaws, though, and their subjects tend to be things like giant squirrels, eagles, etc.

• [D Wyatt]

  People did this around an area I used to live, I really enjoyed them and had never seen stumps used like that before.  One had a cross and others had dog/wolf heads, totem pole, bird. 

  People destroyed it because it was in the hood and pretty things just dont last around there, period.   There was a documentary on the area, how it declined in just 10 years to a near slum from a very affluent community with amazing parks and rolling hills and historic homes.  :/