The concept and mystique of the Tree of Life spans millennia, cultures, and religions. In the autumn, trees shed their leaves and look dead in the winter. But, in springtime, buds appear on the naked branches, and soon the tree is renewed with a fresh garment of resplendent foliage. For the community Holiday Season art show this year, the BRC founder submitted a Tree of Life banjo to the exhibit offering a motif that we are all interconnected.
Bronze, brass, silver alloy, and mother of pearl trees are linked by a continuous network of roots on the peghead and fretboard. The pot displays a sine wave curve of dark cherry and black walnut sinuously coursing through a field of brightly toned ash wood like an endless cycle. The banjo was marketed via an online auction, and the new owner reported in the auction`s Feedback Profile, “Gosh, what a wonderful piece of “art” this banjo is. A pleasure doing business.”
As a class project, a team of university students from the School of Journalism attended the exhibit’s gala opening reception to interview the BRC founder about his curious banjos and Bluegrass music endeavors. They videotaped his band performing for the Children’s Hospital at the nearby brewpub and photographed the banjo builder in his workshop. Pictured below, the students stand beside a rare WWI poster published in 1917 by the university Journalism School, as this original document resides in the BRC founder`s military history memorabilia collection.
On Thanksgiving weekend, let us all take pause on our journeys and enjoy a moment with friends and family in the shade of the Tree of Life while gratefully sharing our interconnectedness.
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