Liisa Andreassen has no experience as a woodworker or visual artist. And she knows nothing about trees.
She isn’t even sure what type of tree she and her husband, John Godts, stumbled upon as they walked through a wooded area near UNC Asheville after Tropical Storm Helene. She just knows that it was massive and that it sparked an idea.
“It looked amazing,” she recalls. “It had been slashed in half and twisted and turned by Helene. My husband said to me, ‘Oh, that looks like this,’ and I said, ‘Oh, it looks like that.’ And that got me thinking: Wouldn’t it be cool if we could create some sort of a trail made from salvaged wood to memorialize the trees and start the healing process?”
From that simple walk emerged Echoes of the Forest, a nonprofit that aims to transform storm-damaged trees into public art and encourage tourism and economic recovery in Western North Carolina, particularly Asheville.
“Like many people after the storm, we were sitting around scratching our heads going, ‘What are we gonna do with all these trees?’” she says.
The project’s initial phase includes placing sculptures — made from salvaged wood sourced through local sawmills — in the River Arts District. With 12 local woodworkers and artists on board and interest from area venues, they plan to install several pieces over the next few months and keep them on display for about a year, Andreassen explains.
Work on the first piece, a memorial bench made from white oak, is underway. The piece is being created by woodworker Chester Shuey, owner of Fletcher-based Appalachian Joinery, and will be unveiled at Foundation Woodworks in the RAD at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 12.
Andreassen’s long-term vision is to expand the project across the region, placing pieces in parks, galleries and outdoor public spaces as community partners come on board. The N.C. Arboretum agreed to display 3-4 pieces by the anniversary of Helene in September, Andreassen says.
Adding structure
Andreassen, a freelance writer and cooking instructor, pitched the idea for a memorial trail to a local marketing agency she works with shortly after that fateful walk. “They loved it,” she says.
She then started floating the idea at a forestry conference to gauge interest. Soon after, she connected with the arboretum, set up a booth at its Bird Day event in February and found early enthusiasm that surprised even her.
“One guy threw down $20,” she recalls. “I didn’t even have a website set up or anything.”
While Andreassen didn’t know much about public art, she did know how to organize. “I decided it’s going to have to be more than a passion project if I want to get serious about it. So I created a 501(c)(3). I do have some experience working with nonprofits. And then I started reaching out to woodworkers.”
The first leads came from a barista at All Day Darling, a popular Montford Avenue eatery. He suggested she contact Megan Walsh, an abstract artist and co-owner of Atomic Furnishing & Design. That tip connected her to the first two woodworkers, and from there the project snowballed.
Andreassen also consulted the Foundation Woodworks website, which lists dozens of regional artisans. “I just kind of randomly chose a few,” she says. “And then I stopped reaching out to folks after a while because everybody said yes.”
Though the trail’s layout is still taking shape, initial installations will be concentrated around the RAD. “The Wedge, the skateboard park, the Foundry — that whole section down there has these concrete pads that are already in existence,” she explains. The property owners have given the nonprofit permission to use the pads for the art installations.
Each piece in the project will be crafted from trees confirmed to have fallen during Helene, even if the exact location of the tree can’t always be pinpointed. “We’re reaching out to sawmills like Big Ivy Lumber Co. in Barnardsville. They’ve got a ton of salvaged wood.”
‘Force of nature’
For woodworker Shuey, crafting the first piece for Echoes of the Forest is a labor that’s as emotional as physical. Working on the bench outside his Fletcher workshop , he’s transforming an 8-foot-long, 18-by-18-inch beam of raw white oak into a bench meant to endure and reflect the elements.
“I want this bench to capture the raw force of nature,” he explains. Flowing carvings on one side will represent the rush of water; on the other, an abstract interpretation of wind. These sculptural elements will merge at the top, where two seatlike depressions will invite people to sit face to face.
“Maybe strangers can have a conversation and form relationships in a sort of serendipitous way,” Shuey says.
The wood itself comes from a tree salvaged by a local supplier and milled specifically for this project.
The shapes and techniques used in the bench reflect Shuey’s signature work. He draws on his experience crafting hand-carved stools and his “topography series,” wall pieces that echo the grain of the wood in ways that resemble natural landforms. For this project, he’s blending both: precision seat carving with organic, free-form reliefs.
“I wanted the bench to feel like it came out of the land,” he explains. “Not just to sit in the landscape, but to feel part of it.”
As part of the Echoes of the Forest project, the bench will be accompanied by a plaque explaining its origins and intent. But Shuey hopes the work can speak for itself through its form, texture and the physical invitation to sit, slow down and take in the world around it.
This is his first piece of public art. Most of his work goes into private homes across the country, never seen by him again once it leaves his shop. “It means something to make a piece that’s going to stay here,” he says. “To be part of the community in this way, it’s different.”
‘A second life’
Morganton-based Chris Markey, another artist who will create a piece for Echoes of the Forest, is a full-time chain saw carver known for his wildlife sculptures, especially bears and foxes.
Markey’s first Helene-related project was in Asheville’s upscale Ramble neighborhood, where he was commissioned to carve a fallen chestnut oak. The resulting piece, a relief carving of an owl, was created for a retired forester passionate about trees, as Markey puts it.
He also took on a smaller project, a fox carved from a Helene-downed oak tree in Laurel Park in Henderson County. “The fellow who owns the property didn’t want to see this tree cut up and turned into firewood,” he says.
Markey has been carving professionally for about three years. But his connection to the craft goes back much further. “I’ve been a fan of whittling and Scandinavian-style carving since I was a kid. My dad was a sign maker, and he would also power-carve signs with power tools. And I realized maybe I should get involved with the chain saws.”
Through Echoes of the Forest, Markey sees an opportunity to bring visibility to the work of local artists while honoring the region’s trees. “We do this work anyway, but we wondered whether there was a way to combine our efforts and do something more community-oriented. That’s kind of where the Echoes of the Forest comes in, to try to give us some organization, some administrative assistance in a way that we can keep doing the work we do.”
For Markey, the post-Helene work is emotional. “Trees are living organisms,” he says. “They have life spans just like we do. To see them basically die is sad. But by creating monuments and public artwork with what remains of them, it’s giving the trees a second life. It’s like paying homage to the tree.”
Andreassen echoes that sentiment, noting how the project has evolved beyond its original scope. “It started out as a healing project, but now it’s really about healing in more ways than just one,” she explains. “It’s about healing our hearts, healing the artists who have been devastated and healing the economy, creating opportunity wherever we can.”
She adds: “My little tree trail has turned into something that seems to be a lot bigger than I anticipated.”
For more information about Echoes of the Forest, go to avl.mx/ero.
