Up from Lemmon's dusty streets there grows a tree, twisted and gnarled, but brimming with doughty pinky blossoms.
The "Tree of Life," the latest creation by resident sculptor John Lopez, is centrally rooted in his growing village renewal project in downtown Lemmon — including a studio/exhibition space. the Kokomo Inn and open-to-the-public courtyard, Boss Cowman Square, with murals and sculpture.
The Tree is a departure from his historic animal and human motifs, born during bad times.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer two summers ago," Lopez recalls. "This is what I was working on when I had to put dad in a nursing home. So it was something for me to distract myself from feeling guilty, which didn't really work."
"The trunk represents the toil and the hardships that we go through in our lives. Some of these trees, when you look at the trunk, they look like they've really been put through the ringer. Then in the spring, you've got these beautiful blossoms and fruit.
"The trunk is a harsh... it's the foundation. And then the blossoms are beautiful side."
A steel ribbon intertwined into the trunk references a passage in Genesis, a "book" within an ancient Hebrew text which reads: "And out of the ground made the [deity figure] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
Tree of life traditions are, of course, widespread across many belief systems, and this tree of life incorporates blossoms and other elements created by people from around the world.
A human figure, dangling by his arms from a branch, was given to Lopez by a metal artist from Oman. Lopez fabricated the pink blossoms. Others were donated by locals friends. A horse trainer fashioned a flower from bits of bridle. A mechanic fabricated one from old tools. Others were sent from farther afield after Lopez put out a call online.
"I'd say there's over a hundred blossoms and they're from all over the United States, Costa Rica, Australia, Nigeria..."
And they're still coming in, says Lopez. "I'm just going to keep adding blossoms to it over the years and maybe it'll get filled out enough."