Saturday, June 16 at 10 a.m. — A look at Natural Tree Art: The Work of Artist Dan Ladd

We will tour a property in Putney Village that has some interesting botanical manipulations that have created a special type of art form from trees. We will meet behind the Putney Town offices (right in the center of Putney Village) and car pool a short distance up Kimball Hill to the site of Dan's work. The tour will be about an hour in length. Should you have any questions please contact County Forester Bill Guenther at 257-7967 (Ext. 305) or bill.guenther@vermont.gov. The tour will happen rain or shine so please bring appropriate footwear. We ask that no dogs be brought on this tour as it is a private residence.

Dan Ladd is an internationally recognized expert in the art of nature collaboration. Dan has devoted more than 38 years to observing, then utilizing suggestive interventions in the living world. The results are often startling: the creation of unfamiliar and unique art forms manifested from plants growing under his guidance. Much of Ladd's work takes place in the outside world, and he is currently artist-in-residence at Smith College's prestigious MacLeish Field Station campus. There he maintains an outdoor studio and a score of ongoing botanical architecture projects including the grafting of trees and the unique molding of tree roots and hard-shell gourds.

Dan Ladd has won several grants from the NEA, the Gottlieb Foundation, and Art Matters, among others. His work has shown in dozens of indoor venues as well. You can learn more about him at www.danladd.com and at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_shaping#Dan_Ladd