The tree of life is one of those symbols that shows up everywhere. Across cultures, religions, and thousands of years of human history, people have been drawn to the image of a tree with deep roots and spreading branches. And I think the reason is pretty simple: it captures something we all feel but struggle to put into words. Growth. Connection. The idea that everything is linked, from the soil beneath our feet to the sky above our heads.

In many traditions, the tree of life represents the connection between the earthly world and the heavens, with roots reaching down into the underworld and branches stretching up toward the divine. Celtic art depicts it as a circle with interwoven branches and roots, suggesting an endless cycle of life. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the great ash tree that connects all nine worlds. In the Bible, the tree of life appears in the Garden of Eden. The symbol crosses virtually every cultural boundary, and I think that universality is what makes tree of life art so meaningful to people.

Why I Chose the Oak

When my gallery in Wilmington, NC reached out and said they had a client interested in a tree of life sculpture, I grabbed my sketch pad and got to work. I knew right away that I wanted to base it on an oak tree. Oaks have this incredible presence. They're ancient, sturdy, deeply rooted, and their branches have a way of reaching and twisting that feels both powerful and graceful. An oak felt like the right tree to carry the weight of all that symbolism.

I also wanted to incorporate a circle into the design. The tree of life is very frequently depicted within a circle, and I find circles to be incredibly elegant. There's something about the completeness of that shape, the way it suggests a cycle with no beginning and no end, that pairs perfectly with what the tree of life represents.

I sketched out a large old weathered oak with gnarly roots reaching down and branches spreading wide into a full canopy, all contained within a circle. Luckily the client liked the direction I was going and decided to work with me!

Building the Sculpture

One of the things I felt was most important with this tree of life sculpture was including the roots. So much tree of life art focuses only on the canopy, but the roots are half the meaning. That balance between branching wood reaching out for sunlight and branching roots digging down in darkness for water and nutrients is beautiful to me. It's the same tree doing the same thing in opposite directions, and I wanted the sculpture to show both.

I started by cutting out the various layers of the tree from flat stainless steel sheets. For the bark texture, I used my torch to burn in knots, grooves, and weathering marks. I wanted it to feel like a tree that had been standing for hundreds of years, with all the character and imperfections that come with that kind of age. I also burned the roots into the ground section to create the illusion that they were actually disappearing into the earth, even though they're the same piece of metal.

For the foliage, I cut out individual leaf shapes and colored them with layered torch patinas, bringing in blues, golds, and purples. I wanted the foliage to feel like it was catching light, with speckled colors that would help break up the canopy and make it look more like real leaves rather than a solid mass of metal. I then welded everything together using rod spacers to keep the foliage off the main trunk, which lets the piece breathe and creates depth and shadow when it's on the wall.

The interlacing roots below mirror the branching above, and the whole thing sits within that circle. The finished tree of life sculpture is 38 inches wide, 37 inches tall, and about 8 inches deep. It's wall hanging, made entirely of stainless steel, and colored using only heat patinas (no paint, ever).

More Tree Sculptures

Creating trees in stainless steel has become one of my favorite things. Each tree species brings its own challenges and character. My live oak tree was wider than it was tall, with foliage that needed to feel light and airy with space between the leaves. The sequoia was all about capturing the immense, humbling scale of those ancient giants. Every tree is a different puzzle, and I thoroughly enjoy the process.

I was really happy with how this tree of life sculpture turned out, and I hope to create more of them. If you're drawn to tree of life art and you'd like to discuss a custom piece, I would love to hear from you. You can reach out here, or browse my full collection of plant and tree sculptures to see more.

Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks for checking out my work!