Inspiration
The Light Trees were inspired by Tina Seddone's art project for the 2009 Burning Man festival. After she was unable to continue working on her project, Bill Watson continued the ongoing development of the lighting technology he was working on and took up the task of making a sculpture for his illuminated leaves. Both of us love trees and it was natural that the Light Trees would come into existence. Tina's large tree sculpture will one day be realized and the Light Trees will hopefully play a supporting role. I would like to thank Tina for being the inspiration for this project and the catalyst who energized the creative process.
The lighting technology comes from Bill's desire to convey ideas and emotions using light and form. His exposure to the use of light as an art form goes way back to his childhood in Europe and the various World's Fairs he attended. The light shows in the 60's and 70's, and Light and Kinetic Art festivals he saw in Munich created a life-long love for multimedia environments. In 1972 Bill saw his first laser light show in Germany and became interested in electronic technology. Since then, everything beautiful that is an conceptual use of light has been an inspiration.
The art at Burning Man was also a powerful inspiration, and showed that anyone with desire and imagination was free to create whatever they wanted to. Experiencing true community provides the reason for doing it. |
