Tree of Life

The Tree of Life sculpture resulted from a call out from the Ronald McDonald House at the Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital in Randwick, Sydney. The sculpture is made of dozens of intwined stainless steel threads that together form the trunk of the tree and then branch out to form the limbs of the tree. Measuring 3 metres by 2 metres this relief sculpture was positioned at the foyer entrance to the House.

Donors could purchase a stainless steel leaf and have their name inscribed on the back of the leaf. In its first few months over $60,000 of donations were received.

The shape of each leaf is laser cut to the exact profile of a very special leaf from an apple tree.

It has come to be considered from Biblical texts that the Tree of Life was an apple tree and its fruit was eaten by Adam in the Garden of Eden. When searching for the most famous apple tree still in existence, I stumbled across the apple tree under which Sir Isaac Newton sat when he considered the notion of gravity. This point in time was the birth of life for a revolution in modern human society.

After discussions with the manager of Sir Isaac Newton’s homestead in England, several leaves from that tree were sent to me and one was then used as the template for all stainless steel leaves in the sculpture.

If one looks closely at the main branching of the upper limbs, one can see the word "Life" formed in that area.