Today is Stephen King’s 78th birthday.
It just so turns out that we visited Bangor, Maine today and couldn’t help drive by his house. Here it is:
There is a statue carved out of the trunk of a dead tree in his yard. Here is a close-up:
For details, click on the image and zoom in.
The tree was a large ash tree in the front yard of Stephen & Tabitha King’s house. It was around 300 years old and had become infested with insects. When it needed to be removed, Tabitha wanted to preserve the tree in some way and she came up with the idea of turning the stump into a sculpture.
The piece was done by the wood carving artist Josh Landry from North Anson, Maine. He carved it using a chainsaw. It took him about a month.
The carving is full of symbols and references meaningful to the Kings and their life. Some of what the sculpture includes are a bookshelf, of course, and many animals like owls, ravens, cats, frogs and even a dragon. There is a corgi dog at the base, presumably a tribute to King’s dog Molly.
Tabitha King described her idea as wanting the tree to “give everything to us”: oxygen, the wood for furniture, and paper for books. She wanted to honor the role trees play in life, not just physically but metaphorically.
I think she succeeded.
Check out Josh Landry’s website here. There is even a picture of him on top of the sculpture.