Granville Court Banyan Tree

Back in 2020, I know it seems like a life time ago, there was a lot of controversy over the Granville Court banyan tree that was causing damage to a near by house. In fact, a good friend of mine was renting that house right before they decided to cut it down. Neighbors and Indigenous rights group protested against its removal. Alas it was cut down. Read article here.

A good friend of mine, Nick Reale from Salt Creek Arts was able to obtain some of the wood. He snagged one beautiful slice of trunk for me. It was too large to fit in my sedan, so I cut it down into two unique shapes. It’s been drying in my shed for over a year.

Recently I took it out and started prepping the wood. It took me two straight days of gluing cracks, pinning and sanding to get it in good shape. I practiced burning and carving on test pieces, but ultimately I was not happy. It just didn’t seem right to aggressively transform the beloved wood into something. I really wanted to honor it.

It’s taken me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with it. The wood isn’t a unified thickness, so I had to be mindful of the structure of the wood. Ultimately, I ran across an image on the web that used stain as a way to paint on wood. I loved the idea of having the wood grains show through.

I still need to varnish this piece, but I hope you enjoy watching me stain it.