In honor of Earth Day 2005, I installed a temporary work of art in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. I created this earth friendly piece to call attention to the trees in the square and to hopefully trigger something in those walking by. The chosen words focused on the positive aspects of trees as a reminder of how important they are for our survival.

Each word is created from handmade pieces of paper using abaca fiber in the shape of the following words: respect, love, honor, give and care.

Each word was made by pulling “sheets” of paper from a vat of coarsely beaten abaca pulp using word stencils cut from anti-fatique matting. After pulling a sheet, excess pulp is brushed from the matting. Once the matting is removed, the pulp is moved by hand into empty sections before couching onto a pellon. When the whole letter is formed, two pieces of string are placed upon the word and lightly pressed into the pulp. The process of pulling sheets is repeated a second time, registering the second sheet on top of the first.

This process was repeated for each of the five words, twenty times. (100 total.)

Since the first install, I’ve wrapped trees with the words at Windgrove in Tasmania and in Williamstown and Pittsfield, MA.