The Soul of a Tree

[Jerry Wright]

Well said.

[Mike Henderson]

Except they almost certainly didn't produce the same product. The subtle detail and proportion in Nakashima's work is elusive and extremely difficult to replicate. I think some of the same could be said of several other woodworking masters who were especially known for design.
Please think of some of this work as a high form of art. I would like to think that what he describes in The Soul of a Tree is essentially an artist's statement of inspiration. It's a little harsh to characterize it as a sham intended to take advantage of gullible buyers. Nakashima spent time in India and was very influenced by eastern philosophy and some of these concepts are very difficult to grasp through the lens of western linear thinking.

If you're suggesting that George Nakashima does not deserve the critical acclaim he received for his work, I hope you'll study it more closely and perhaps change your mind.

I think Nakashima had a special ability, gained through experience, to look at a slab in the rough and "see" what it would look like when it was finished. And also to "see" what embellishments he could add to it (such as butterfly inlays).

When people (potential customers) would ask him how he selected a slab for a particular table, he was unable to tell them how he did that because it was based on experience in working with slabs. Perhaps he was somewhat of a poet and decided to give the answer that he looked for the "soul" of the tree. He may have found that his clients were very satisfied with that answer and it was far easier than trying to explain how he used his experience to do the selection.

Of course, that answer does not help another woodworker to select a slab. But it certainly set him apart from other woodworkers who did the same work.

Mike

[At the high end of any profession, the differences between workers (or athletes) is very small, but those differences are very important to who actually makes it to the top. Nakashima had a story that other equally competent woodworkers did not.]

[I'll add a story about Sam Maloof. Back when Sam was getting started there were a number of woodworkers who were working in the same design area. But Sam is the only one who really became known. Why?

I had the privilege of meeting Sam several times and came to this analysis - Sam was an EXTREMELY likable guy. It's hard to describe his personality but you couldn't help but like him. He was talkative, funny, warm and welcoming to everyone. I'm sure that the people who collect furniture responded to him the same way I did. And I'm sure they wanted to help him and bought furniture for their collections. And once several big name collectors start buying, others take notice.

Now, Sam had to be a good designer and woodworker - he couldn't get by on his good personality by itself - and he was a good woodworker and designer. As good as the other woodworkers who worked in the same design area at the same time. But he had that "something extra" that set him apart.]

[Mason Truelove]

I haven't read it, but that something like an incarnation after death?

[Edwin Santos]

I think I remember that movie storyline from waaay back. Something about a block of rock and a sculpture. Just remove the extra rock to reveal the sculpture inside.

Hi, I believe the story you are referencing is not from a movie, but from Michelangelo. Yes, that does go waaay back. It is written that he believed the sculpture pre-existed in each block of marble or stone he carved, and it was his task as a sculptor to release it.
Of course from a purely scientific, hyper-logical, linear way of thinking this is a preposterous idea. Yet, it, along with other inspiration, contributed to his prolific works that are widely considered to be near miraculous in their technical, proportional and artistic expression. I have visited Florence and Rome and literally seen people gasp in front of a Michelangelo sculpture or fresco - the old expression take my breath away. I've also seen many moved to tears, sometimes almost uncontrollably. This is the nature of art, IMO.
At the same time, there will always be someone in the crowd shaking their head and saying they don't get it. This is also the nature of art. I once heard an American tourist at the Louvre in the crowd around a Picasso point at it and say she thought her 6 year old granddaughter could do that!

I hope nobody will say Michelangelo was no better than other competent artists, but rather rode a wave of marketing built upon a good story. Please don't anyone say that or I will be breathlessly moved to tears.

[Eric Commarato]

My favorite treasured book! I was fortunately to find a copy a number of years ago...it's hard to come by. You will enjoy reading it. And, BTW, if you ever want to make a field trip south, Mira and Kevin still have the weekly tours at the Nakashima compound in New Hope, Pennsylvania, which is near my home.

available on Amazon for $33.00

[Rick Potter]

Hi Edwin,

The movie clip 'storyline' I was referring to was in a post just above mine, by Andrew Hughes. Yes, I am aware of where it came from, I just wanted to keep it short and to the point.....which was, that there is nothing new here.

I have no problem with an artist 'sensing' what he does. It is beautiful work, and I appreciate it. I simply don't 'feel' it.

It's a bit like impressionist art. Some find it 'inspiring'; I wouldn't hang it on my wall.

This thread is one of those, in which we just have to agree to disagree. I think we all agree that Mr. Nakashima did beautiful works of art. Lets let it go at that.

[David Helm]

I think Andrew is describing exactly what Nakashima meant by the title. Not marketing at all. For those of you who only associate 'soul' with sentient beings consider this definition from Meriam Webster for soul:
b : the quality that arouses emotion and sentiment.
Artists but maybe not craftsman, think about this with every piece.
From reading the Soul of a Tree-I think this is the definition he was talking about.

I think this is exactly what the case was with Nakashima. Soul is not necessarily about religion or religious beliefs. Most of my adult life has been spent in natural, ancient forests. Being among these mixed age trees, many older than 1000 years is a "soulful" experience.

[Steve Demuth]

I find Nakshima's "Soul of a Tree" fascinating, but also narrow and arrogant. One definition of soul that would work for Nakashima's perspective is "the essential part" - that which cannot be reduced without destroying the identity of the thing. So, what to make of "The Soul of a Tree?" As someone who has spent decades planting, grafting, nurturing and harvesting trees, the notion that the soul of any tree is what is revealed when you slice it up, drill it, rout it, sand it, and finish it, is badly off base. There is much, much more to a tree. Nakashima had an eye and a vision for finding the wood within the tree, and making that wood into something beautiful - but most of the tree's "treeness" - it's essential quality as a living, growing, reproducing thing had to be destroyed in order for Nakashima at best to resurrect hints and traces of that quality and history in first a board or slab, and then as furniture. No more can a board or a table embody the soul of a tree, than can any single dimension of one of us (our employment, say), however much of my history it may carry to the discerning, embody us.

However, the man clearly had a reverence for wood, and the eye and skill and human imagination to bring out the potential beauty locked within a particular trunk or branch. He added as much to the wood as was taken away from the tree in making it wood. This too is important. It is Nakashima's soul we are seeing, not that of the tree that had to die to become his medium.

[Brian Holcombe]

Let's take two woodworkers, both who work with natural edge wood. Both do their best to select the best material for their furniture and both are equally successful.

However, one of them sells his furniture with a story - that he has found the "soul" of the tree and brought it into the furniture. The other woodworker just offers his furniture for sale, depending on the natural beauty of the wood and his craftsmanship.

Lo and behold, the guy with the story gets more sales at higher prices than the second woodworker. I suspect that Nakashima recognized that some buyers were gullible and would pay extra so that they could tell their friends the story that Nakashima told them.

Both woodworkers did the same thing, and produced the same final product - except for the story. The story didn't help Nakashima select better wood or better cuts - since a tree soul doesn't exist, searching for it is fruitless - but it helped him sell. He was a smart businessman - a good marketing person.

Mike

No one commissions a piece of furniture because they just need a certain piece of furniture, instead they are buying an experience as well as a piece of furniture.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

This has been very interesting-- who would have imagined such a passionate dichotomy from a discussion of a book! I suppose we might also split similarly had the discussion started off with James Krenov.

[joel cervera]

Ya, I must say I find Mike's view a bit more cynical than how I would characterize both the nature of trees or how an artist would approach The "soul" of the medium in which he works..

With respect to Nakshima referring to a tree's soul. I wouldn't take him to mean a Spiritual component he ascribed to the tree necessarily..though possible. It comes down to what he meant by soul.
soul
sōl/
noun

• 1.
  the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
• 2.
  the essence or embodiment of a specified quality.
  
  
  If he meant #1, then its a subjective aspect that he felt the trees possess. But, It can neither be proven nor disproven that trees have eternal souls. The best one could do is argue for their belief knowing no proof one way or the other can be shown definitively.
  
  If Nakshima meant #2 then he sought to capture the essence of the tree in his work. I would feel that anyone who worked with wood and missed out on seeing something of the mystery, beauty an majesty of the forests of the world in the material they are working with was really " missing out".
  
  Maybe its a by-product of the fact that most of us don't actually go anywhere near a forest to buy our lumber (aka trees). We live in our air conditioned homes totally insulated from the natural world. We drive to the lumber yard in our air-conditioned trucks ( insulated again from the natural world)and then buy our trees in perfectly sorted and dried lumber yards without ever stepping on anything but asphalt or concrete..
  
  Or maybe its that the term sentience was used as what Nakashima meant by Soul. Which my not have been at all what he meant by the term.
  
  In any case I think everyone's opinion is to be respected for what it is. But for my part I find that if I look at a tree from a scientific standpoint l. Even a single cell is so complex, finely tuned, and ordered that it provides more questions than answers as a subject of study. Let alone the billions or trillions of cells, and their harmonious functioning, that make up an actual tree. So from a Scientific viewpoint I think the mystery of what a tree is is still more intact than our understanding of what it is.
  
  If I look at trees from a spiritual standpoint... well I live in California. I'm about 20 miles from an old growth Coast Redwood grove. Coast Redwood are the Tallest trees on Earth, up to 377ft. They live for thousands of years. I'm sure you can walk in that grove and not feel something but I would bet a buck that if you didn't you likely have antifreeze running thru your veins.. Same with the Seqoia. largest living things on Earth. And same with the Bristlecone Pine that also live here In CA. They are the oldest living things on earth living up to about 4,500 yrs. I have seen all of these with my own eyes and so I don't see someone like Nakashima having to make up a story about trees to market his work. I find it very easy to accept that this man just felt a special connection to trees and wood. i feel kind the same way about them and I don't sell furniture to anyone so marketing is not my reason for saying this.
  
  Is it a possibility he spent his life obsessed with trees and wood an wrote books about his love of those just to market his wares.. sure. but dollars to donuts its just what floated his boat and got him up in he morning.

[Frederick Skelly]

Man oh man. What did I start? Im sorry Mike.

I get the connection with trees being very old living things - just being in awe of something that has lived hundreds or thousands of years, wondering who or what might have walked past this spot, etc. Sentient? Well, not for me. Forgive me guys but that sounds a bit far out. (I keep picturing Shirley McLain parading around a redwood in a druid costume.)

So I guess I don't personally see any soul in trees - the religous kind or any other kind. If Mr. Nakashima did - in whatever way he personally defined soul - that's ok with me. But it doesn't sound like I'd enjoy his book very much.

Thanks for the insights.
Fred

[Malcolm McLeod]

A fascinating look into the minds (and souls?) of woodworkers (and artists). I think it wasn't that Mr. Nakashima revealed the soul of a tree via his work, but instead the tree revealed a bit of the workings of Mr. Nakashima's soul. And I will continue to strive to reveal a bit of my own, however amateurish that effort may be.

[Patrick Walsh]

Its funny this thread would pop up right now.

It was just last week i was talking with another woodworker and he mentioned Mr.Nakashima and this book. I had no idea who Mr. Nakashima was but i had heard of the book in other circles "gardening".

When this other woodworker then mentioned slab tables i still had no idea who he was. I dont much care for slab tables. I very much love large slabs but i would much rather see them left in their raw form sitting as they are right off the saw in my shop, garage, warehouse or my living room to admire.

I suppose it is time i read this book. I very much connect with the tree as sentient beings idea. I dont know what came first for me, the love of the forest, the love of trees or the love of creating things with trees. I think it was probably the love of the forest and nature in all its forms. My least favorite form being humans but that tid bit will only fuel those who see trees to be of little to no value so i shall resist digressing. It is in nature, from nature amd through natur in so many ways that i find my insperation and thus ability to create. The observance and my interactions with nature has taught me how to live, inspired me, picked me up off my rear end when i was needed lifting up with a road map in hand as how to progress forward.

A piece of wood, a pile of lumber and thus a tree speak to me on so many levels. I have the greatest respect for trees and i guess nature as i feel if there is anything bigger than us all that deserves respect it would have to be nature. Trees, rock earth mountains, the oceans and fresh air all being the closest things i can relate to as divine.

It does not however suprise me one bit that my personal love affair with trees and thus lumber is not one that the general public shares, understands or agrees with. As disapointing as this can be in the face of say massive distruction like say the Keystone pipeline and the myriad of other direct assaults on nature and thus our own survival as a species "not that i am much concerned about that one" it is a fact and one that i am sure the masses of of people missing the bigger picture beyond the self will continue to miss and thus dictate the ultimate path that is taken with regard to nature and this planet.

I am pretty much aok with my opinions and views being terminally unique. I actually take quite a bit of pride in viewing the world through such a lens as i see it as a gift. It has been a gift to me.

Viewing the earth and all its inherent and natural beauty that exist all on its own without the help of humans, actually "despite humans" has enriched my life beyond belief. I believe that it can offer the same to anyone willing to open both their minds and thus hearts to it.

[Jim Becker]

It seems there's a lot wrapped around what each of us consider "soul" to mean in the context of both the book and the wonderful activity we share. Perhaps it's not a literal thing; rather, it's a feeling, perhaps of accomplishment or contentment. It almost doesn't matter. If you enjoy the craftsmanship and get satisfaction with the end result, that's a good thing.