Art Brings Life to Dead Trees

My eldest sister, the "Fine Artist" from Arizona, sent me this a month ago, about a month after the work was complete. I'm only just now looking into it and WOW, check this out.

A chainsaw artist commissioned by Mayor A.J. Holloway has transformed four standing dead trees in the center median of U.S. 90 in Biloxi into a sculpture garden, teeming with pelicans, egrets, seagulls, a blue marlin and a shark. Artist Dayton Scoggins is scheduled to complete his four days of sculpting at the end of the day Thursday, March 8, 2007. Holloway, meantime, may approach the City Council to hire Scoggins to create more works of art from other standing dead trees in the center median

Just four days to create these amazing sculptures. And with a chainsaw, no less!!

You can watch a couple of videos of the artist at work or see the "Before" and "After" photos linked off the Town of Biloxi's Your City at Work pages or read more about the project.

The artist should have gotten more than $4000 (only $1000 a tree) for this work. I simply cannot believe the detail achieved in some of these was done with a chainsaw!! I say again, WOW.

I also wish there were a better shot of the tree with the pelicans and seagulls--there's only this closeup of the pelican with a fish in its mouth, but at the top of the vertical, it appears there's a really nicely-done seagull which doesn't appear in any of the photos. Someone in Biloxi needs to take (and post to the web) some better photos. This art is worthy of it.