Title: Only Tree (With Nest)
Artist: Emily Arthur
Date: 2018
Medium: Bronze with Steel Base
Credit Line: Collection of the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art

Item description: The tree branch and nest were observed and collected during the winter months then cast in bronze using the lost wax process. Bronze is recognized as one of the most important materials used in ancient
sculpture. I am interested in how bronze material in this artwork transforms a common tree branch into a valuable memorial of our changing environment. The silhouette of the tree branch is a metaphor for the whole tree, the missing tree. The birds are implied but no longer present, the nest is the shape of their absence. The particular shape of this nest is formed by three lateral shoots from the tree branch. The nest built between the shoots is the unique shape of what is not there, a home made in the missing places. The tree branch, fragile nest and migrating bird species serve as a memorial to the ever-changing search for home and belonging.
—Emily Arthur