One Impulse from a Vernal Wood:
Contemporary Sculpture by Rick and Laura Brown

Chesterwood’s Artists-in-Residence 2018
This exhibition was on view during the 2019 and 2020 seasons

Take a tour with the Brown’s below:

You can find out more about Rick and Laura Brown’s work at www.rickandlaurabrownsculpture.com

One Impulse from a Vernal Wood photo gallery:

Mother Tree

A majestic full-growth eastern white pine overlooking and under the ground nurturing a broad sweeping community of younger trees that radiate outward from her long-time location deep in the forest.

Siblings

Using two hemlock stumps we constructed two linear sculpture configurations suggesting two siblings, possibly offspring from their mother tree, playfully cascading down the hillside over rocks and through ferns on the forest floor.

Dreaming

This storm-damaged hemlock is animated throughout the day with dappled sunlight. The form alludes to the inter-connectedness and co-existence always present in the forest.

Link

A reconfigured fabricated systematic structure extends the life of this eastern white pine after being destructed in a violent storm.

Rouse

A hemlock reconfigured to reflect the way trees send out warning signals to surrounding trees when sensing dangers such as an insect invasion.

Singing Tree

A hemlock singing out to surrounding trees and plants throughout the forest.

Wisdom

A tree in this advanced stage of decay continues to provide vital information for younger trees. These abstract symbols reference the origin of language.

Veer

A web of interlocking screens that bob and weave back and forth between a stand of hemlocks.

READ THE ARTISTS' STATEMENT

ART. NATURE. COLLABORATION.

In the fall of 2019 a local dance school, Berkshire Pulse, held a workshop in which participants were invited to create dances inspired by the artwork of Rick and Laura Brown whose large-scale installations, made from felled trees at Chesterwood, are placed throughout the woodland walks. An audience was invited to be led from piece to piece to watch both choreographed and improvised dances, and to also create their own movements in response to the art. Watch a 3 minute video from the workshop below:

A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS
AND BECOMES ART

WCVB Channel 5 came to visit Rick and Laura Brown’s sculpture in the woods at Chesterwood. Watch the story below:

“One impulse from a vernal wood 
May teach you more of man, 
Of moral evil and of good, 
Than all the sages can. 
. . . Come forth, and bring with you a heart that watches and receives.
”

Map of the Show

One Impulse from a Vernal Wood:Contemporary Sculpture by Rick and Laura Brown

ART. NATURE. COLLABORATION.

A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS AND BECOMES ART

One Impulse from a Vernal Wood:
Contemporary Sculpture by Rick and Laura Brown

A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS
AND BECOMES ART