I was commissioned by the City of Waterloo to carve an Old Black Maple tree on the first hole on the Grey Silo Golf Course in Waterloo Ontario.  The City had went to extraordinary measures to create an environmentally friendly Golf course, preserving the natural settings as much as possible.  Extensive consideration was given in designing specific features of the course to maintain environmental conditions to suit the local flora and fauna.  Included in this consideration was the preservation of a rare, to this area, Black Maple tree.  Unfortuantaly  the effort  and money spent to preserve this majestic tree was to no avail. A micro-storm  blew through the area and decapitated the majestic tree leaving the stump behind, about 30′ tall.

This is what I commissioned to carve. The task at hand was to come up with something that would reflect the intent of the Golf Course.  My interpretation was a story pole depicting some of the local Flora fauna.  Here is my interpretation.

Sometimes, it appears however, the the universe has some grand design of it’s own.  On the evening of the day the City accepted and signed off on the completion of the project, another micro storm blew through the Golf course. The storm lifted the scaffolding and dumped the structure on top of the carving a took out the top section of the carving including the Red Tailed Hawk, leaving the tree once again decapitated.

Amazing.