Aurora Palo Alto: BM Tree Comes to City Hall

The initiative to display Aurora in Palo Alto began with local residents Sam and Julia Hirschman (ages 10 and 8) who have been working on the project for over a year.  With the support of their Father, Harry, they have engaged local civic and business organizations to support the project as well as gathering petitions to support the project. They have secured the support of the Palo Alto Art Commission and the Palo Alto Business Association.

With this piece, I am creating an environment of mythical beauty that instills a sense of awe, wonder and joy to those who experience it. It acts as a unique and unexpected element placed in the world that empowers and transforms the viewer at the moment of participation. Viewers become enveloped in the magic of the experience and are taken out of the everyday. This work brings light to the darkness, making nature come alive in the desert night. This piece provides branches to read under, a forest in which to play or fight, waging a war full of knights and princesses, a fairy tree to re-ignite our childhood imaginations, full of wonder and endless possibility.

This tree represents the secret clubhouse, the magical wardrobe, the portal from a practical reality into a real life fairy tale. It is the barrier between waking and dreaming. The tree enacts a time outside of time, and a place outside of place. It is a universe all your own, that responds to your presence and an alternate reality that connects and inspires all of us to play.

Here’s the CBS Local story on the project.