Willow Tree was introduced in January 2000 with one figurine, 15 angels, and the
Nativity. The line has grown to encompass those sentiments that we most want to
express. To our friends, to our family, to our children's teachers, to those
near and dear, to those far and infrequent.
The original inspiration for Willow Tree still holds true today: Willow Tree
is an intimate, personal line of figurative sculptures representing qualities
and sentiments that help us feel close to others, heal wounds, or treasure
relationships to living things. Artist Susan Lordi hand-carves each original
piece with this thought in mind. Her figures continue to evolve as she
identifies emotions so important for us to convey, and renders them in simple,
pure gestures. These art forms beautifully express love, closeness, healing,
courage, hope...all the emotions of a life well lived.
The name Willow Tree was chosen to symbolize that which is gestural and
beckoning. The figures are columnar in design, like a tree, and often carry
natural objects or animals as metaphors for human virtues or
qualities...rosemary for remembrance, a bird for healing, flowers for beauty.
The sculptures are rendered so as to suggest elegance, simplicity, peace and
serenity. Forms reveal their expressions through body gestures only...a tilt of
the head, placement of the hands, a turn of the body. Emotions are left to the
viewer to discern, which makes them personal and powerful.
Willow Tree is an understated line that speaks in a compelling and powerful
way.
