NARRATOR:  

Not long before this work was made, the city of Rome cut down a grove of ancient elm trees near Beverly Pepper’s house, and was about to haul them away. 

SFX: Chainsaws buzz in backdrop 

BEVERLY PEPPER:  

I said, just leave them there. Don’t ask me why I said that, but I had the feeling I would like to use them some day.  

NARRATOR:  

This work was made from one of those trees, combined with metal. 

PEPPER:  

Many artists are squirrels and they come across something that touches them, and so we don’t get rid of those little elements, just in case.  

I have this wonderful chutzpah of taking on something I’ve never done before. I did not really know how to weld. What I was doing was outwitting the metal [laughing], using my limitations, which I think most artists do. We realize after the fact what we’ve done.  

You make your choices, that’s what happens. So you choose to make one of these metal curves bigger than another one, some are twisted, one goes right through the wood. This is not like something you make and cast. This is really and truly immediate, the work is immediate, it’s from my hand to the chisel to the wood to the steel. It was a very satisfying way of working.