Beechwoods Carvings

The lives marked in the beech bark are usually reduced to initials, dates and a runic symbol of love (see post 23/9/16).  They are enigmatic.  This is no less so.  Who was Harvey, why and when was he here and was he alone?  More than that: what motivated him to take the time to carve this literal message?  Not the impetuous trace of a love affair, this becomes a memorial, an epitaph carved on a living headstone.

 

 

 

Harvey has cut naïve letters; this face is the work of a skilled hand.  Is it a Green Man?  I imagine so. Green Man: a representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves; often used as a decorative architectural ornament; and found in many cultures from many ages around the world, is often related to natural vegetative deities, a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of growth each spring.  Here nature provides the leaves usually created by the sculptor.

Photos:  The Beechwoods, Cambridge, 2017

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