Maple Acer

This wooden sculpture is located in front of Saint Luke Evangelical Church and Academy at 1500 W. Belmont Ave. Titled "Table Acer," the form is meant to resemble the maple seed pods, or acers we all know as "spinners" that flood the ground every year, filling gutters, covering gardens, and wedging themselves into the nooks and crannies of the city that are almost impossible to sweep clear. (You can find hidden spinners in between the deck boards of any wooden deck in Chicago if you look closely enough.) This sculpture by Chicago artist Berthold Boone, carved from a single piece of maple, is intended to reference its symbolic "parent" tree, the giant maple you see located on Greenview Ave. just north of the corner. In this, it can clearly be understood as referencing the cycle of life, and providing a monument to the power and pervasiveness of the maple. However, without knowing this source, my first thought on this sculpture when I approached it was that it looked like a foot. The rough-hewn chisel marks all over the sculpture even seem to resemble the unique pattern of epidermal ridges we use to identify individuals. I saw this wooden footprint initially as a symbol of Jesus different from the cruciform normally in front of a church. Instead of commemorating his gruesome death and sacrifice, it seemed to symbolize his travels, the foot-worn path he took to find others who would carry his message to the world. Maybe this evangelical church is using the maple as a symbol of Christ's power and pervasiveness. Like the maple, his feet are dense and hard, his seeds are everywhere, and like the spinners, those who carry his message are not easy to sweep away.