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 7


DAY 7
04.11.07
TREE 8

I had a great day at Cherokee Park today. I parked by Dog Hill and waited for a pause in the thunderstorm. When it did, I picked a huge, leafless tree in a large grassy field. I had to be particularly careful since the branches were wet and slippery. I didn’t get too high because of that. I then walked around the park to look for good spots for my wedding. I found some interesting possibilities. Then I drove to Big Rock and by this point it was sunny and warm. The creek was rushing from the storm so I stepped out on the rocks to watch the trash flow by. Then I went to The Big Rock and got as low to the water as I could. In a few minutes the water level rose and I had to get up higher. When I went back to the stones I had been on 10 minutes prior, they were underneath water.

4-11-08: Later that day I drove through hail to H&R Block to sign my taxes. My mom works there and had just called to inform me they were completed. I was lucky it didn’t start hailing when I was out on the rocks.


Yesterday I took Will’s advice and made some time lapse videos. I just went out to the front yard of my parents’ house and made one of me climbing up one little tree, and coming down another.


Then I made another video of a three tree transfer.  I had shot it once but the angle of the camera didn’t catch the action up high so I repositioned it and did it again.  Those moments on the middle tree were very scary because my muscles had gotten so tired.  And I was amazed I did it.  Thanks to that guy’s video of small tree transfers I was able to do it myself.  It’s like when nobody thought a sub 4 minute mile was possible until Roger Bannister did it.  Then 46 days later someone else did it, and now the record is around 3:41.


Sorry it’s sideways, I need to get a conversion program to make my .MOV files into .AVI to edit them. Any suggestions?

If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome, and please view my introduction. Thanks.

TS