Matthew Obold-Geary
Awardee: Individual First Prize
Title: Windswept Juniper
A windswept juniper, easily overlooked, often forgotten.
A windswept juniper, an ancient, wise teacher, a symbol of time like a river that never stops flowing.
You see yourself moving through life in its gnarled, twisted trunk, its roots, connecting you to your destiny.
A wealth of knowledge bestowed in its branches, rings of wisdom lay in the trunk.
A windswept juniper, powerful without speaking, respected without trying.
This piece represents the resiliency and wisdom that we all possess. As we age, we are often overlooked, yet we remain strong and wise. This sculpture is made from reclaimed materials—once useless to some but given a new life. A windswept juniper that has lived for an incomprehensible amount of time and is still holding firm against the wind is an analogy for aging. Starting with the canopy, the old tools were given to me by my Grandfather and a friend of our family who is an older adult I called Papa Bill. These tools are well-worn and well-used by my Grandfather and Papa Bill. These tools come together to form the canopy, each having a history of their own—a testament to withstanding time. The trunk of the juniper is made of wood scraps from various other projects, and the wavy pieces of metal used to represent the earth near the bottom are found inside water heaters. Nestled within the wavy pieces of metal is driftwood from the Oregon coast. These pieces of driftwood are an essential detail of this piece because they remind me of my Grandparents, who live in Oregon. The base is part of a railroad tie weathered over time. Using the personification of a windswept juniper as being wise and resilient throughout time shows how even though we might be old and weathered, we are still a wealth of knowledge.
Windswept Juniper – An Interview with Artist Matthew Obold-Geary
September 12, 2024
In the eyes and experience of Matthew Obold-Geary, creating art is a constantly unfolding process. Obold-Geary creates large-scale pieces out of found metal, wood, and discarded objects, including his piece titled “Windswept Juniper” which earned him the honor of a First Prize Award in the Untold Stories of Aging 2024 Art Competition. At just under five feet tall, the piece represents a gnarled, but proud juniper tree, comprised of driftwood, weld nuts, parts of old water heaters, and tools passed down from his grandfather and an older family friend.
In describing the piece’s inspiration, Obold-Geary references finding peace, calm, and centering from the natural world, and feeling inspired by the twisted juniper trees at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, surviving in a potentially hostile environment where they might not seem to belong. Accompanied by a descriptive and lyrical poem, the piece calls to mind the ways in which the natural elements of our world might serve as examples of resilience, strength, and wisdom to guide us through calm and uprooted stages of life alike.
The piece also holds a significant symbolism due to the nature of the found elements, their ties to Obold-Geary’s loved ones – including the discarded water heater parts that come from his father’s workplace, the driftwood from the Oregon coast where he visits his grandparents, and the tools passed down from respected elders. Even his welding skills are passed down from prior generations, although Obold-Geary states that certain parts of the creative process were less mediative and straight-forward. In the creation of his pieces, the artist often begins with a vision, perhaps a rough sketch on parchment paper, but without a clear plan, instead working through each phase of development as they come and at times using unusual methods, such as dropping this piece repeatedly on the ground to identify and address any issues in its structural integrity. Such a process might also invoke visions of aging across the life course as a constant adaptation, requiring creative thinking, perseverance, and vision.
Obold-Geary does not necessarily identify as an artist, feeling no attachment to the title itself, but instead finding a simple joy and meaning the process of making. In sharing the piece with a broader audience, he is excited to bring the work outside of its box in the shed and into the light, to see what others might find in the piece, depending on where they are in life and what insights might be called to mind. Today, Obold-Geary is a relatively younger adult, but as he continues to grow older himself, he is interested to see how the meaning of the piece changes for him as well.