BY QUITTERIE GOUNOT

In print | Published September 9, 2010

In Western cultures, death is often regarded as a sad occurrence, a final and inevitable destiny inspiring mostly grief and powerlessness. But after summer, we may find a reassuring, home-like sense of constancy in the majestic trees that crown our lawns and border our paths. It is easy, then, to forget that these trees, much like us, may be only temporary residents of this place. The red tree outside of Trotter Hall is a magnificent reminder of this reality.

Christened “In the Shadow of Abracadabra,” this thirty-foot oak tree of the Quercus macrocarpa variety was painted by former Scott Arboretum curatorial intern Sam Keitch over the summer. Keitch used several gallons of red, latex-based paint, which he applied with a power sprayer. The task was especially challenging in light of the size of the tree, as well as the weather conditions and the required precautions.

“The whole process lasted a little over two days. The bulk of the work was performed in the middle of June during two of the hottest days of the summer. Of course, I was also covered in a protective suit and wore gear on my face, making the process a bit more complicated,” Keitch said in an e-mail.

The Scott Arboretum staff selected the tree because it was dying. It was the second such tree to be painted at Swarthmore. The first one, a blue tree, was done by curatorial intern Todd Rounsaville in 2005. Rounsaville painted the dead tree that stood in the Crosby Courtyard outside Kohlberg, until it was removed two years ago. Alumni recall it with great nostalgia.

“I liked it because it was such a bright happy blue, and from my freshman year window on Parrish 4th; it seemed to watch over all the comings and goings in the Kohlberg Courtyard,” Cecelia Osowoki ’10 said in an e-mail.

Katie Becker ’10 was struck by the discovery of the white growths on the dying blue tree. “I didn’t really understand [when I first saw it] that it was a dead tree just painted blue, so [later] I was shocked to see that it wasn’t as pristine and blue. The fact that it had been blue had made me think it could stay forever, and I hated to see that it was still rotting anyway.”

According to Claire Sawyers, the director of the Scott Arboretum, painting dead or dying trees is a way to make the campus community reflect on the process of change, one which naturally includes living and dying.

“It is a way to turn an apparent problem — the loss of a tree’s life — into an opportunity, to extend the tree’s life even beyond its death,” Sawyers said. Through a creative process, the tree transcends the natural limitations of its regular mode of existence and is transformed into something else, a work of art. While it may no longer function as a living being, it now exists as an aesthetic object.

“Most people observe a dying tree and view it as [an] imperfection, as something that should be discarded,” Keitch said. “This piece provides an opportunity to recognize death in the landscape, and how the process of dying is not just natural but often beautiful. However, this tree [is] also bold and vibrant, and is a celebration of this tree’s life.”

The painted trees are also simply intended to jostle people out of their daily routines and call their attention to the environment in which they find themselves. “It is easy at a place like Swarthmore for students to get very busy and wrapped up in studying, and to forget about their surroundings,” Sawyers said. As such, the arboretum staff chose a color that would contrast with the natural colors of the landscape.

“The original plan was to pay homage to Swarthmore and use the traditional garnet,” Keitch noted.
However, Sawyers explained, this color turned out to be too subdued for the project’s full intent to be realized, and so a more vibrant geranium-red color was selected for the oak. Sawyers further mentioned the complementarity of these blue and red hues with their surroundings. The blue of the first tree played off the blue of the art glass panes of Kohlberg, while the red of the present tree recalls that of the roses in the nearby rose garden.

Slowly, the “red tree,” as most people call it, is finding its place in the Swarthmore landscape.

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