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 37


DAY 37
05.11.07
TREE 43

On the way to West Virginia, riding in the car with my mom, dad, and grandma, we stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Eastern Kentucky… about mile 96 on Interstate 64. It was a beautiful sunny day with some really nice trees behind the rest stop building. A woman who worked there was a little nosy and came around back to see what we were up to. I say we ‘cause my family wanted to watch. So I chose my tree and started to climb. I felt like I was on display and felt rushed. At one point I really wanted to go higher but it was risky and I didn’t want to try it in front of them or take too long. So I stopped and tied my ribbon. When doing so my mom started to ask very loudly if I was leaving something in the tree. I didn’t respond thinking she’d get the hint, but no, she asked louder. Not wanting the worker woman to know I was tagging the tree I told my mom to leave it alone. I thought that was nicer than shut up. So I climbed down. Good climb, kind of annoying with an audience, especially family.

 

 

5-11-08:  The video above is from yesterday’s climb in Cherokee Park. One of these days I’ll make a video of falling whirligigs that will knock peoples’ socks off.  Until then you’ll just to enjoy what I got so far.  I climbed a tree on the edge of the creek by frisbee field.  The park was packed and I also took pictures and video of some of the people near me.  I felt very weird filming them without their knowledge.  Pictures are one thing but video of their actions feels a little wrong.  Though the video I took was of hippies doing yoga.  After a few seconds I thought, “Man, hippies doing yoga to reggae, how boring and predictable.”

 

 

And a woman was walking her dog and the dog chased a ball into the creek.  A few minutes later the woman was drying her dog off with a towel. 


Happy Mother’s Day everyone.  I feel so bad that it coincides with a journal entry where I basically tell my mom to shut up.  (Sorry mom, have a great Mother’s Day!)  I guess from that I should learn to prep my audience for what not to do when I am in a tree.  I was lucky the worker woman didn’t say anything because I have since been kicked out of a tree at a rest stop.  Apparently it’s a rule, unposted, unwritten, just something you can’t do at rest stops.  Bull shit, I say!