One Tree's Magical Afterlife

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Merlayna Snyder, "Mystique," 2017

black walnut, 52” x 39” x 10” (photo by Jon-Mark Wiltshire)

The moment Victoria sculptor Merlayna Snyder saw the bulky chunk of black walnut she knew she had to carve a whale’s tail. The wood was forked and, at four feet by four feet, it weighed 400 pounds. But Snyder didn’t realize the full power of her intuition until she got out her chainsaw and angle grinder. As she worked, the complex grain began to emerge. “The wood dictates how things will go,” says Snyder. “But you have to listen.” Her finished work is a mere 44 pounds. Buffed to a fine polish, it evokes sunshine glinting on the watery breadth of a breaching whale. “The grain,” says Snyder, “is almost magical.”

Her sculpture, which she calls Mystique, is part of a group show with a fascinating concept – every work is made with wood from the same tree. In all, some 60 pieces are part of oneTree 2017, on view at the Robert Bateman Centre in Victoria until Jan. 31. With 53 participants, the show offers a variety of sculptures and wall pieces, but also tables, chairs, lamps, bowls and several musical instruments. It’s a crowd-pleaser to be sure, particularly at the height of the winter craft season. But the show also pays tribute to the long life of a tree and to the ingenuity of the artists and artisans, who collectively created more than $100,000 in economic value from wood that might otherwise have been burned.

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Larry Martell, "Plenty of Fish," 2017

black walnut, 14” x 24” x 3” (photo by Jon-Mark Wiltshire)

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Larry Martell, "Sea and Sky," 2017

black walnut, 44” x 21” x 11” (photo by Jon-Mark Wiltshire)

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The show’s concept emerged from Vancouver Island’s woodworking community several years ago after a custom furniture designer from Duncan salvaged an old silver maple that had blown down in a storm. John Lore, the owner of Live Edge Design, knew his customers would enjoy hearing stories about the tree’s history. He decided to keep track of everything made from the tree and then created a poster showing which part of the tree had been used for each item. “We wanted to celebrate the life of a tree,” says Lore, who happily lists the many contributions made by trees – from providing shade and sheltering birds, to enriching the ecosystem with oxygen. He displayed the furniture – along with the poster – at an interior design show, where it was spotted by David Leverton, who worked at the Bateman at the time. Leverton saw the concept's potential and helped organize a first oneTree show in 2015. It starred an old-growth bigleaf maple from the Cowichan Valley that was shared between 42 woodworkers, mostly from Vancouver Island.

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Studio Robazzo, “Binary” 2017

black walnut, 44” x 49” x 14” (photo by Jon-Mark Wiltshire)

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Ken Guenter, “Scrappy Banjo,” 2017

black walnut and Sitka spruce, 29” x 13” x 13” (photo by Jon-Mark Wiltshire)

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Arnim Roderick, "Trouboisdoor," 2017, black walnut, 41” x 16.5” x 2.5” (foreground) and David Martinello, “Leaving Zenith,” 2017

black walnut and maple, 73” x 33” x 20” (photo by Jon-Mark Wiltshire)

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This time around, the tree is from one of Victoria’s toniest enclaves. A local arborist let Lore know about an ailing black walnut, a species that is not native to Western Canada. Planted by Andrew Wright in 1906 in the yard of his new home on St. Charles Street in the Rockland neighbourhood, the tree had developed an ominous crack. The home is now a complex care facility, and the arborist feared the tree was at risk of coming down in one of Victoria’s fierce windstorms. It might have ended up as firewood, a common fate for such trees. Instead, it has been reborn to a glamorous afterlife. One of show’s most impressive pieces is a large table designed by Lore and built by Stefane Dimopolous from a single plank. It’s titled My Dinner with Andrew, in Wright’s honour.

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John Lore and Stefane Dimopolous, “My dinner with Andrew,” 2017

walnut, brass and leather, 30" x 8.75' x 3.5" (photo by Live Edge Design)

Frank Armich, a Parksville woodworker, was surprised to see what others had made. “I’m amazed at the creativity,” he says. “Everybody sees differently.” Participants were free to do whatever they liked with the wood they chose, and contributions range from a sculptural assemblage of scrap wood to a folksy gnome home. Squat down to preschool level and peek through the hut’s tiny windows, and you’ll spot a wee bed covered with a patchwork quilt. For his part, Armich used a branch to create two stylized wall pieces that evoke both trees and leaves. “I made a tree out of a tree,” he says with a laugh. Chunks of rough bark create contrast with the polished surface. He also used the paler sapwood, the soft outer layer between the heartwood and the bark, to add more visual interest.

The overall quality of work in the show is high although, as with any group effort, some pieces capture more interest than others. Unfortunately, however, there’s too much work for the venue. Scattered between and around Bateman’s paintings, the pieces are not always displayed to best advantage. But the intriguing concept and strong sense of communal effort help one look past this problem. Pride in craft permeates the show. But there’s something almost mystical too.

Snyder, for instance, is rhapsodic about the tree's inner beauty. Her work is a dance, she says, and every cut a step. She sways back and forth, letting the wood lead her tools. “I want the tree,” she explains, “to have self-expression.”