![]() ![]() I’m just an artist.’”īetween the times Momen sketched his idea and the tree’s dedication ceremony on Jan. As Du Toit wrote in his book: “In the end he (Momen) proclaimed: ‘I don’t want to be a messenger. Ultimately, Momen knew people would form their own interpretations of the tree, and he didn’t want to give the sculpture too much literal meaning. Momen has also interpreted the tree as “a symbol of preservation and survival that also represented the essential beauty of the American nation,” and “a metaphor for the dynamic balance and order of the universe.” It represented the “natural order of all living things-an order that was under assault by rampant industrialization and urbanization,” Du Toit said. ![]() In the early 1970s, he included the tree in some of his major paintings as a reference to environmental issues of the day. ![]() Over the years, Momen has interpreted the meaning of his tree in different ways. The next day, before Momen reached his destination in San Francisco, he sketched a tree-the “something” he’d envisioned the day before. … Something other than the salt and the sky.’” I was in a blank space, and I thought, ‘Something should be here. “As I sat in my car in the air conditioning … I was thinking, ‘There is something missing,’” Momen said. When Momen looked toward the northwest, he could see the curvature of the earth in the flat landscape of the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was a hot day, maybe 100 degrees, and the straight road disappeared in a mirage on the horizon, he recalled. The tree’s artist, Karl Momen, was driving through the west desert in August 1981 when the idea for the sculpture hit him as if in a vision. Located 25 miles east of Wendover, Utah, the tree was built to withstand desert winds of 130 miles per hour and earthquakes of up to 7.5 on the Richter scale, according to the book “Vision in the Desert” by art critic Herman Du Toit. On a clear day, the 87-foot tree is visible to motorists from 17 miles away. Along Interstate 80 through Tooele County stands a unique piece of art donated to the state some 30 years ago. ![]()
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