VISUAL ARTS
BY KELSEY ANNE RANKIN
IF A TREE FALLS
REDWOOD CROSSCUT,
55 INCH X 53 INCH,
BY JOSH KRUTE
Local artist Josh Krute on creating a life-size
print of the world’s largest felled tree
— The Fieldbrook Giant
J
osh Krute likes wood — I mean, he really, really likes it. We
sat in a coffee shop (at a wooden table, of course) and he ran
his hands over the tabletop’s grain, sputtering off details about
it with a pretty serious expression on his face.
“In the last six or seven years, I’ve been printing sections
of wood,” he explains. “I’ve been transferring their grain patterns onto
paper — a process called relief.”
Krute’s a Western State Colorado University graduate with a degree
in printmaking, but he’s also been dabbling in woodworking for several
years (see EW’s story “Man vs. Nature,” May 2013). He can tell which
tools make what marks on a tree — a dialogue between man and flora.
For the past two years, Krute has focused on one question: If trees
could tell their stories, what would they say? Krute and a team of two
additional artists, plus his mum, are collaborating on a project to create
a life-size print cross-section of the country’s largest known tree — the
Fieldbrook Giant of Eureka, California.
The giant, a redwood about 390 feet tall (well over 30 stories high),
was cut down in 1890 and is estimated to be 1,100 years old; its stump
measures 35 feet across. The tree was witness to a fundamental part of
Pacific Northwest culture, as well as its own downfall: logging.
‘Each one of these
trees has its own story,
its own narrative.’
Logging has two pretty defined sides, it seems. People do it or peo-
ple hate it. Pacific Northwesterners know the ups, downs, pros, cons
and historical and environmental impact of logging. Since Krute most-
ly works with salvaged wood from trees that used to be in the forest and
aren’t anymore, he’s had to consider things like the effects of logging,
the environment and local communities.
The Fieldbrook Giant project sums up the dynamics between the
good and the not-so-good of the industry. Krute stumbled upon the tree
while researching a new subject of interest. He headed down to Eureka
in search of the giant and found that the locals were unaware of this
treasure in their backyard.
“Going to this historical society in Eureka, doing research and look-
ing things up in their public library,” Krute says, “that’s been really
interesting.”
The tree has played a big part in the town, even if the knowledge
of its existence was lost through the years. Digging through archives,
Krute came upon old lithograph prints of items that were sold in the
Stump House, a small shop that the tree was physically a part of, and
he discovered that Eureka resident Eric Hollenbeck had a crosscut slab
of the tree that measures 13 feet tall and 12 feet wide. Because the
original stump has too much decay for a print, Krute will use this sec-
tion for printing.
“You try to imagine where these trees came from,” Krute says.
“Each one of these trees has its own story, its own narrative.”
When a tree is cut, its history reveals itself. The growth rings give
a general age range and the type of cut reveals what tools were used.
Krute’s work focuses on the space between natural environment and
its destruction.
Whether from a historical or environmental perspective, Krute says
these prints can bring to life the importance of conservation. He hopes
to see them one day in a museum like the Smithsonian.
Krute and the team head to Eureka to create the giant prints at the
end of June. To follow the project, go to joshkruteart.com.
JOSH KRUTE WILL
CREATE TWO 15-BY-
15-FOOT PRINTS OF
THE GIANT
PHOTO: TRASK BEDORTHA
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June 23, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com