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.
Posted on

DAY 11


DAY 11
04.15.07
TREE 12

All day I kept putting off climbing a tree. I got back from my parents’, unloaded the truck, and it was already past 10PM. So I walked down the field towards the lake. I found a dying fire in the pit. I walked around hoping for a tree near by, out in the open to climb. There was a pair of pretty little trees that were already full of leaves. I chose the tree closest to the lake and climbed. I found myself in the treetop holding on to skinny branches that easily swayed under my weight. Yet all the fear I had of being out alone in the dark faded. I felt comfortable and very hidden. I climbed down using my sense of touch and not very much sight. I walked back to the fire, got it going again, and then laid on a bench and looked up at the dark grey clouds with black splotches in between. I let my thoughts roam and found myself thinking about how much I am appreciating this experience here at MACA. A very wonderful warm night.

 

4-15-08:  The image of the tree above is in daylight because I snapped the photo the following day.  I did not start taking night photos until later in the project.  On some climbs I didn’t even have my camera on me.  I would climb and then sometime during the next day go back to the tree to take a picture of it.  My night shots are some of my favorite… but you’ll have to wait a while for those.

The turn back to colder weather is not welcome.  I slept in yesterday then fell asleep twice reading in the afternoon.  I finally forced myself to go outside after dinner.  As I sat and ate my pizza with my dad I spotted a tree in the back yard that I wanted to try.   It’s a young tree with few limbs that has a severe kink in the trunk about twenty feet up.  I chose this because I knew I would have to shimmy all the way to the kink and would be the longest distance I have yet done in that manner.   I also decided to not video the experience but rather take the camera up with me.  This gave the climb a similar feeling to the first 365 days of my project.  Almost as if I needed the comfort of the familiar.  But then as I took pictures and looked at my boring and tired results I realized why I started making videos in the first place.  I needed change.   But I won’t keep the images from you.  Here are two; an image down the trunk and another out into the tree tops.  The black spots are the resting turkey buzzards. 

Happy Tax Day!!!

TS