KEFFER OAK
Keffer Oak
Appalachian Trail
2023
Fiber, needle-felted wool
24x24 inches
The Appalachian Trail, dubbed the “long green tunnel” because of the
trees that line the treadway, is sometimes suggested to be a monotonous
journey through the forest. However, as someone who noticed the
individual trees in the wood, I saw the trail as inviting, exciting, and
anything but monotonous.
“Keffer Oak” pays homage to the largest oak on the southern Appalachian
Trail, a living legend that I had the privilege of encountering during my
thru-hike in 2012. In this felting, I depicted the magnificent tree in the way
I experienced it, by embracing its massive trunk and looking to the
sprawling canopy above. Every fiber used to recreate the tree's gnarled
bark, adorned with lichens and furrowed with age, is a heartfelt ode to this
venerable sentinel of the trail.
