The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
Stuart Frost marks the top of a disk to make sure they restack in the same direction
A small scale model made of cork disks illustrates Frosts basic idea for his sculpture.
Stuart Frost and Marshall Bullis use a custom made jig to cut a lodgepole log into inch-thick disks.
Artist Stuart Frost returned to Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild this year to create a second installation for Lincoln's sculpture park.
Frost, whose known for his wood creations featuring repeating forms and patterns, first came to Lincoln in 2019 to create "A Place is a Place is a Place," the cabin-shaped piece composed of slabs of wood cut in the pattern of a historic cross-cut saw. He planned to come back to Montana in 2020 with his wife, who had a residency scheduled at a museum in Missoula. He mentioned to Kevin O'Dwyer that he hoped to return to BPSW to work on a large log that had been delivered to the park while his wife was in Missoula.
Then COVID came along and delayed his wife's residency until this year. Frost agreed to come with her but found out the log he'd had his eye on had already been put to use. Nevertheless, BPSW president Becky Garland enthusiastically invited him to come and do something for the park
"I came up with another idea to use materials from here," Frost said. "Now I'm cutting up all these lodgepole into small discs about an inch thick and they're going to be stacked up put into a sort of like...dancing trees."
The piece will use more than 21 logs that are being cut into disks which will then be offset as they are re-stacked to create a wavy, dancing effect.
"The thing is, trees do grow like that. Not often but some do because of certain things," Frost said. "But I know that at some point they used to tie trees down to mark paths, so you get trees that are that shape, so you get a dancing tree. The idea is it's like a pathway or marker."
Frost said the original trees used as way-finding markers are dying off naturally, so there aren't many left. He sees his new piece as a way to preserve the idea.
The creation of the complex, labor intensive artwork may take some time however. Given the fact Frost couldn't be on site until Sept 12, he doesn't think it will be completed by the Sept. 24 launch date, but he will be here for a month to finish the installation.
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