Author: Todd Smith

Hi! I am an interdisciplinary artist and committed educator. From 2007-2010 I climbed a tree everyday and documented the project with photography, video and writing on this blog. I am revisiting the trees and writing again starting March 2018. Stay tuned. My work considers our collective impact on the urban environment. Projects range from community-based, data-driven projects interpreting bike usage into sound, photography and video series exploring human movement through urban structures and green spaces, and interactive sculptures that vary in their use of found materials, analog technologies, and emerging digital media. I currently teach a variety of 2D, 3D and digital subjects at universities in the Louisville, Kentucky area.
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DAY 52


DAY 52
05.26.07
TREE 58

I chose today’s tree from another time I was driving by my old high school and noticed a very nice tree out front. Since I was going to be there anyway, I stopped off and called a high school friend, Julio, who was very close by, to join me. While I waited for him to show I looked around at the surrounding trees. There were two that looked like amazing climbs but I couldn’t reach the first branches. Julio arrived, I discussed my options and he offered to give me a boost. So I took it and passed on climbing the original tree I saw for its ease. After two tries of boosting I got the first branch. From there, my daily climbing skills kicked in and it was nothing but higher, higher, higher. Again, like yesterday, this tree had beautiful camo-like bark. Very strong branches at good distances apart for a real secure and high climb. I believe Julio was impressed and thinks me a little crazy. But that’s fine. I don’t feel unsafe, I love it, and as much as I like to share climbing with others, I really feel and hope that people can find a similar activity that they love, like I love climbing trees.

5-27-08:  I hope Julio reads this entry because he was wondering when he was going to show up in it.  I am very excited that he is back in Louisville.  He just moved into the Henry Clay building downtown.  I helped him move in and he’s got a nice place.  He helps me into trees and I help lug his couches.  I also like the picture above because it has my truck and Julio’s car.  I am not sure what I like it, but, you know, our attachment to our vehicles can be strong… we identify with them.  Or, I guess I should say, they help us be identified as we drive down the road.  Especially my rusted, paint-peeling, old truck.  “Ol’ Blue” or “Big Blue” as my dad calls it. 

Also, I will refer to sycamore trees like this (camo-bark) until I learned what a sycamore is.  Which I think took me a while. 

Sunday’s climb was a bit of a disappointment.  I had been away from my parents’ place since Tuesday and instead of stopping to climb before I got home, I just wanted to go straight home.  A few hours later I went across the street to the development and found a tree that turned out to be a short climb.  I couldn’t get high and I’ll explain why in my video.  What was awesome was that it turned out to be a three tree climb.  I went up a little maple and bent it over to get into the big tree.  Then I went out a limb and then pulled over another small maple and climbed down.  That was a first for using a small tree to get down.  Luckily I didn’t just band all the way down, the tree leaned up against the big one preventing a fall.  I’ll share some pictures from the climb then the video: