Friends of William Bartram II
Friends of William Bartram II is a multi-unit artwork reflecting eight of the many native trees America's first naturalist recorded, wrote about, or illustrated, or that are spotted on his historic trails in the southeast United States.
The piece was created in support of the 2024 Bartram Trail Conference, hosted by the conservancy which is headquartered in the Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center in a historic area about eight miles of downtown Franklin, N.C. by Kim Keelor, through the ancient process of wet felting.
Wool, recycled silk, cork, hand-stained birch cradled boards, barn wood, wet felted, needle felted.
Species type noted below, row by row, left to right:
1. Flowering Dogwood, White Oak
2. Mountain Ash, Green Hawthorn
3. Red Maple, Longleaf Pine
4. Sourwood, Tulip Poplar
"18th-century American naturalist William Bartram traveled the southeastern United States (then colonial) between the years of 1773 and 1777 documenting and illustrating species of plants and animals previously unknown to western civilization. Bartram was also an astute ethnographer, providing us with some of the only descriptions from that era of Native American villages and customs..." as noted by the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy.
The piece was created in support of the 2024 Bartram Trail Conference, hosted by the conservancy which is headquartered in the Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center in a historic area about eight miles of downtown Franklin, N.C. by Kim Keelor, through the ancient process of wet felting.
Wool, recycled silk, cork, hand-stained birch cradled boards, barn wood, wet felted, needle felted.
Species type noted below, row by row, left to right:
1. Flowering Dogwood, White Oak
2. Mountain Ash, Green Hawthorn
3. Red Maple, Longleaf Pine
4. Sourwood, Tulip Poplar
"18th-century American naturalist William Bartram traveled the southeastern United States (then colonial) between the years of 1773 and 1777 documenting and illustrating species of plants and animals previously unknown to western civilization. Bartram was also an astute ethnographer, providing us with some of the only descriptions from that era of Native American villages and customs..." as noted by the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy.