"BLUE TREE" - CSU Transit Stop, San Bernardino, California, USA
in collaboration with Greenmeme (Freya Bardell & Brian Howe)
Working with Peters Studios to help create this project was an inspiring experience and, to be honest, much more than we had ever expected. They worked with us to help refine the project and make it the best it could be. The ability to work in the studios in Paderborn provided a unique opportunity to be involved in the process of the artwork’s production and to learn firsthand from the Peters artisans. Beyond the inspirations of their capabilities in glass, we were shown the utmost hospitality during our trip there. This is a truly special place to be, work, learn and grow as an artist.
- Freya Bardell and Brian Howe, Artists
DESCRIPTION: The Blue Tree Project engaged the removal of a tree from the CSU San Bernardino campus. The loss of this pine tree was deemed necessary to develop a new station on the line of the more efficient sbX Rapid Transit system. Art students documented the tree removal process over the course of eight weeks. Photographs of the tree are printed into glass windshield panels – an archive of the process of a tree being cut, pruned, painted blue and photographed for public art. On overcast or smoggy days, the same blue images of the tree will come to the visual forefront as the panel and white background frame them. As the sun passes through the glass, images of the tree are cast onto the ground, symbolizing the loss of the tree.