When tragedy struck their beloved cedar tree, the clients created a beautiful sculpture from the stump.

I first met Rick Lee and Monique O’Rielly at the Portland Home & Garden Show.  They hired me to create a design for their difficult sloped back yard.  They had a beautiful large native cedar tree and we designed the landscape to fit around the tree.  It was the focal point of the naturalistic style of the design.  Before they could install the design, their cedar tree started dropping needles and turned a sickly color; the arborist recommended removal! 

Rick and Monique were devastated but then they came up with a great idea (I wish it had been my idea).  They contacted a local wood carver named Gavin (sorry folks he moved to Idaho and I don’t have a contact for him), and he created a beautiful, flowing, carved design into the trunk of the tree. 

This required thinking ahead so when the tree was cut down they left a sizable trunk.  This allowed plenty of space for the carved design and made a large art piece for the garden.