The Oakland Redwoods, a sculpture of redwood, concrete and copper by Gabe Babcock who comments "The Oakland Redwoods are my response to the Bay-Area; concrete and tall buildings. When i view the cityscape and the hills my mind drifts back to a time whe n the redwoods out-numbered people and they were taller than the buildings. i muse with disappointment at the human juggernaut. To see more of Gabe's work see his website gabebabcock.com
"I strive to illuminate the tension between nature and humans through art. Using found materials, I test them, searching for limits with a structural balance, much like an explorer gingerly traversing a glacier in high summer. In using various materials and testing their limits, I toe boundaries; each project becomes an engineered experiment. Similarly, a stonefly’s cocoon of sand and pebbles is fit for three years of tumultuous waters; the cocoon can fail and its components once again become part of the river, shedding light on connectedness and impermanence. The tension and balance I strive for is like that of an eagle’s nest. Weaving found materials together with its beak, for the bird to balance a metric-ton basket on the highest point of the tallest tree to embrace the elements is like Russian roulette. Nobody would ever do this, but an eagle does and succeeds."