The plaza of the building I currently work in, (which is called world-wide-plaza) is being repaired. The workers have built a wall around the area of their activities, so nobody can watch them, or maybe so they do not get distracted by all the interesting people who work in one of the companies in the complex and spend their lunch hour in the not yet renovated areas of the plaza. The wall is made out of cheap wood planks, painted on one side, the outside, and untreated on the inside. As I took a break in the afternoon, my vanilla ice-cream somehow brought me to the only plank in this particular wall which was somehow attached against the “rules”. The wooden side was exposed and looked almost framed by the otherwise sky-blue wall. There were some marks on the wood, indicating that the piece must have been on the floor for some time. The dirt marks looked as if somebody had walked up the wall. In one place there was a circle left over by a bucket that somebody must have left there when the plank served as a bridge between two places perhaps. The piece was about a yard and a half across and two and a half yards in height. The piece of wood was not only framed, it looked like an interesting piece of art, one with a hidden logic one with a secret, a story perhaps? It was obviously one piece of wood. There were no cuts, there were no seams. The branch holes were distributed in a beautiful harmonious way. How did nature manage to create this elaborate piece? How long did it take to make this 1.5x2.5 yard piece of wood. I looked at the remains of one of the branches and counted the year rings. There were 16. The other branch, much further below. 16 as well. Now this did not mean that the tree was 16 years old. The branches were 16. The tree was most likely much, much older. How was it possible that the wooden area was so continuously large. How could 16 or so branches just have grown out of this large flat surface? The piece looked beautiful, but I just could not find the answer looking at it, or I had forgotten the answer I once knew. The piece did not want to tell me how it had been created. There were no visible symmetries, no visible traces of foul play. All I saw was a large veneer surface and a very skillful arrangement of branch circles. Some of them large and dark and with 16 year old branch medallions, some missing, some dark and surrounded by fantastic shapes and symmetries of what seemed to be year rings gone wild.
I walked over to the entrance of the construction area. I looked on the inside of the open door, which was also made out of wood, not as beautiful, but quite interesting. What immediately became visible was a symmetry in the branch holes. There was a repetition. Every 9 inches or so there would be a branch hole that looked very much like the one to the left and to the right. I looked at them, measured the distance... And this is when I remembered how veneer is made. This was when it all became very clear. All of it. In order to get large wooden pieces, the wood is cut thinly in a spiral. The Tree is first cut into pieces that are the height of the final product and then a large saw shaves the tree very thinly while a machine spins the tree trunk. This is why the branches would repeat this obviously on the inside of the door. The tree used here was apparently relatively young. The branches were smaller. I walked back to the large piece and tried to find the repeating pattern. When I looked at the piece again I realized why I it was not possible for me to remember the process from the get go. The tree must have been so large, that the branches would repeat only after exactly a yard and a half. So there was no visible repetition in the piece, unless the observer knew how to look for it. I was looking at all sides of a tree at the same time. The tree was there in front of me, the full circumference of it. It had been opened and I could see each side of it at the same time, all branches at the same time, I was everywhere around the tree. I made a round shape with my arms just to imagine the size of the tree. I found myself standing in front of the wall, hugging the idea of a tree that had been shaved into parts in order to make a wall for construction workers to work behind. I knew that if the tree were still there, I would have probably not been able to embrace it, because of all the branches. Embracing the idea felt quite warm though. (Try it. It is is a good flow of energy.) Understanding the process of the last moments of creation of a beautiful object was quite satisfying too. I had a big smile on my face when I walked back to the office. A really happy day. I wonder why the workers attached this particular piece in this particular manner. I have the feeling that somebody must have seen the beauty of it?, or was it pure coincidence? It is a good piece. If you are in the area of 49th street and 8th avenue, take a look at it. It is on the eastern wall of the construction area, facing towards the west entrance of the World-Wide-Plaza. I think I am going to take a picture tomorrow?