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 6


DAY 6
04.10.07
TREE 7

The tree I climbed today, I didn’t actually climb. It had fallen, died, and was starting to break apart. I started at the base of the trunk and walked up the tree using the branches to steady myself. Though I was never too far from the ground, I was nervous that a branch would break and I would fall. Sideways trees are also much bouncier than vertical ones. A few minutes after, I found a dead, mostly bones deer body. It was sunny and warm.

4-10-08:  I hated having to make the image above so small but to fit it on the page I had to.  If you strain your eyes on the far right part of the image you can see the orange speck where I tied my ribbon.  I chose this tree because I was even more sore this day than the day before.

As for the deer body, besides my strange syntax on how I described it, it was pretty cool.  I took some pictures.




TS