Tree Burial II- Following My Inner Bloodhound

Tree Burial II is a veritable layer cake of symbols and artistic impulses. Follow along to untangle this gritty, glorious web.

Tree Burial II ©Leslie Peterson Sapp

Tree Burial II is a continuation of images and concepts I developed for Tree Burial I and The Nebra Sky Disc. It is a free-wheeling jazz riff on elements I gleaned during research for these pieces, elements including, but not limited to:

Solar Boats
Bronze Belt Plates
Sun Spirals
Tree Trunks Made Into Coffins
Experimental Archeology
Scandinavian Petroglyphs
Tree Spirits
Ancient Boat Construction Plans
The Life/Death Cycle.

You can learn more about the two pieces that inspired all this crazy scientist research by reading the blog entries I have written for them. Click on their titles just below.

The Nebra Sky Disc
Tree Burial I

Cosmological Seacraft

It all started when I tried to understand the strange “smiley face” at the bottom edge of the original Nebra Sky Disc, an element that I simply could not include in my artistic rendition of it. (Read the blog entry and you'll know why.)

In my research I learned about something called The Journey of the Sun.

By studying various Nordic Bronze Age artifacts- such as rock art, gold votive offerings, bronze razors, and belt plates- experts have been able to piece together a generalized belief system that goes like this:

With the assistance of various cosmological creatures, the Sun traverses the arch of the sky, and at night, completes its return journey beneath the land and sea to reemerge the following day. This cycle of light and dark, day and night, symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and death.

Nordic Petroglyphs

The reason why I was so intent on following this train of thought was because I was (and still am) confused by the shape of the "solar boat" (smiley face) on the Nebra Sky Disc. It is an almost perfect arch, and yet Bronze Age depictions boats generally have a flat, shallow keel.

This led me to learn more about ancient boat construction, and the various experimental archeology projects that seek to reconstruct found boat remains.

Reconstruction plan of the Hjortspring Boat

Sun Spirals

Tree Burial I and II are inspired by an amalgamation of several tree burials from the Nordic Bronze Age, especially one known as Egtved Girl. She was buried in Denmark around 1370 BCE. Because of the conditions in the burial mound, her clothing is in an almost perfect state of preservation.

One of the most striking elements of Egtved Girl's burial is her bronze belt plate. It's 6 inches across, and is etched with a tight spiral motif.

Egtved Girl's Belt Plate

Anni Brøgger is a professional dancer who did her own form of experimental archeology.

She performed a dance wearing a copy of Egtved Girl's costume. During the dance, the sun glinted and danced through the spirals on the shiny bronze belt plate. In a time with no lights and very little reflective metal, it must have seemed like magic.

My Artistic Process

Confession: I tend to overthink things.

I usually embark on making a piece of art with a plan. I know, more or less, what I'm gonna do, how I'm gonna do it, and more or less, what it'll look like when I'm done.

It's safer that way.

Safe, like staying indoors, yet casting furtive, envious glances out the window to see your pals playing in the mud.

Not so, with this piece.

Tree Burial II started its life as a 48x40 drawing on a roll of watercolor paper. After working on it a bit, I changed course and purchased an even larger, 60x40 wood panel, which became Tree Burial I.

I put the original drawing aside.

But then I was seized by the desire to... tear it up!

The beginning...

Just before I tore it up.

Visual Impressions

People sometimes ask where I get my ideas. Well, I often get visual impressions in my mind, which serve as a launching point.

What happened next.

I had a visual impression of tearing the sides of the drawing off and mounting it on a 48x24 panel.

Once this happened, the piece changed in fundamental ways.

Art mediums (paint, charcoal, collage, etc) can be used in two ways: It can be used to create a cohesive, alternate reality, OR it can be used to refer to itself.

And once I tore that paper, it no longer became a representation of a tree, it became a piece of torn paper with an image of a tree on it.

The abstraction grew from there.

Geometric Tendencies

I find myself attracted to square and double-square formats. In this case, I used a 48x24 panel, which I stained with burnt umber to bring out the wood grain, referring to the wood of the tree and tree coffin.

Since the double-square panel is made up of two 24x24 inch squares, I used my huge compass to describe two circles, each emanating from the center of each square. It looked a bit like a figure 8. The number "8" flipped on it's side makes an infinity symbol.*

Led by another visual impression, I was inspired by this tiny painting by Fra Angelico in 1424. It's actually an "S" in an illuminated manuscript.

Madonna of Mercy with Kneeling Friars, c1424, Fra Angelico

I love the fishes twirling and consuming each other, with the calm presence of the Madonna in the center. It brings to mind the Ouroboros, another symbol of the life/death cycle.

Solar Boat Petroglyphs

Spurned on by my fascination with The Journey of the Sun, I sought out Nordic solar boat images that would suit.

Most surviving examples are from Scandinavian Petroglyphs.

Madsebakke-schiff Solar boat petroglyph, Bornholm, Denmark.

I started to add drawings of the petroglyphs around the circles. I also created a boat-like shape, seen from above. This boat-like shape stretches from top to bottom, enclosing the figure of Egtved Girl inside. It is reminiscent of an aureole surrounding a spiritual being.

Another tendency of mine is that I want to explain things in a literal fashion. Perhaps it is an artistic failing. OR maybe it's the way my mind works.

I really, REALLY want you all to know these are boats. I know they sort of don't look like boats. Let me show you a boat.

Enter, the Hjortspring Boat.

The Hjortspring Boat is actually from the Iron Age, but whose counting? It was deposited in a bog as an offering, and it is a somewhat intact boat from pre-Roman (before written language) Northern Europe. It's a good example of what Bronze Age boats were probably like.

Plan of the Hjortspring Boat

I love the graceful, precise elegance of the boat plans. They contrast beautifully with the earthy, gritty textures of wood grain, charcoal, and torn paper.

Unlike some of my other pieces, the images in this work are not inkjet prints. Instead, they are hand-drawn tracings of the plans.

Following a Trail

In this series of Archeology Art, I find my inner bloodhound is taking a lead role.

Merriam Webster's second definition of bloodhound is "a person keen in pursuit."

Keen in pursuit. I am putting aside self-doubt in exchange for beguilement.

An addendum to this entry is that Tree Burial I begat yet another piece about boats, stars, and sun-cycles entitled The Sun's Nocturnal Return. You can see and read about it HERE.

Tree Burial II 48x24 Acrylic, collage, charcoal, conte, archival ink, acrylic heavy gel on panel

Appendix:

Want to make an infinity symbol?
For a MAC, press Option 5 on the keyboard.
For everybody else, hold the ALT key and type 236 on the number keypad on the right of your keyboard.

∞