Tree Drawings are Natural
by Bonnie Alter, London 
on 07.29.08
We've had artists listening to the sound that trees make, and we have had lots of artists drawing trees but now we have the trees doing the drawing--sort of. Tim Knowles creates pictures by attaching pens to the ends of branches and letting the wind do the work. With paper placed under the pens, the chance movement of the wind dictates the composition of the final drawing. The weird thing is that each tree delivers a different drawing. For example, a willow tree with 50 pens attached to its long, thin branches produces a picture that is light and wispy. Compare this to the larch drawings (pictured) which use 4 pens and are more pointillist with lots of dark dots. The oak tree drawing does look like an oak--does that make oaks the best artists? Each work is presented with a photo of the artist, oops tree, that it was made from.
But is it art? The artist clearly has an ecological bent to his work. He has also photographed the flight of insects which look supernatural. He has a series of black and white photos of full moon reflections on the water. The balloon drawings are produced by a suspended nib from a helium balloon. The pen traces out the wind's movements as the balloon moves within the confines of a cage. Knowles says that "The work attempts to make visible the invisible, be it the movement of the wind traced out onto paper by a pen suspended from a buoyant helium balloon, the path drawn by the moons reflection on undulating water." “The pen moves across the earth: it no longer knows what will happen, and the hand that holds it has disappeared.” ( Paul Auster) :: Tim Knowles Via :: Inhabitat
More on Natural Art
:: Listening to Trees
:: But Is it Art?
:: But Is it Art?
:: But Is it Art?
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This is the second "is this art?!" article I've read in four days. Did we not learn from the first one that anything is art? That art is in the interpretation of the thing?
Just because I think attaching a pen to a tree branch is ridiculous doesn't mean it isn't art. Does anyone else remember those big yellow umbrellas that covered miles of open countryside in California in the mid 90s? A few of them fell over and hurt people. They were weird and ridiculous. But guess what? Still art.
My brain is being overloaded with sarcastic comments.
I agree. Stop asking if it's art. It makes it sound like the author has no sense of art. Only those that truly question art would ask that question, or those that are ignorant (in my opinion). Give the artists (here the tree and Knowles) the benefit of presenting it as it is - ART.
Stop degrading yourself and them.
Well, I'm not going to say that this is the MOST ridiculous thing I've ever seen, but it definitely competes for a spot in the top three. However, since a majority of the 'art' being put out these days is just useless trash, I'm quite content to also call this 'art'.
They're drawing Happy Little Bob Rosses.