Memorial Tree (Elden Tree)
Memorial Tree (Elden Tree) was commissioned by Busselton Vet Hospital in 2022. This mural, like all of my murals, is entirely hand-drawn up and hand-painted, utilising fine-art techniques such as glazing, subtle washes, scumbling and others on a large scale.
The impetus behind Memorial Tree was to create a space for the Vet Hospital's clients to bereave of the loss of their pets. This tree would operate as a mourning and healing space for the clients and a way to remember their connection with the pet. Following this brief, I designed an old imagined gum tree, something aesthetically situated between real and unreal, operating as an extension of what I had learnt from my original Biboolboorn mural and techniques I had learnt since then.
The leaves on the mural function as record keepers for the clients to note down the name of their pet. This can then be kept on the mural for the duration required by the client. 100 leaves facilitate the average number of pets that the vet puts down each year. The names, much like real leaves, mirror a cycle of life; when the leaves on the tree are complete, new names with replace them, and the remembered connection made possible by the tree will have turned full circle.
Details
Artist
Tom Ansell
Tom Ansell is a West-Australian-based Muralist and Visual Artist interested in and practising artworks influenced and informed by both realism and surrealism. Tom completed his BA: Visual Art at ECU in 2014 before going on to study his BA: Visual Art Hons. in 2015-16. During his Honours, Tom had his first foray into public art. It was working with local sculptor, Alex Mickle, on a large project for the City of Bunbury that Tom completed his first public artwork, a 5 m-long re-imagining of the Carbet Castle, a barque that had its demise in Koombana Bay. The finished work, titled The Rescue, can be seen at the intersection of Koombana Drive and Estuary Drive, Bunbury.
In 2016, Tom completed his first mural, a 4.5m x 4m hand-drawn piece titled Sister Cities. This piece drew on Tom's fondness for drawing and mark-making, and was completed entirely in mural markers. In the years following this, Tom had a hiatus and worked as a Tutor, completed formal training to become a Lecturer at TAFE, and continued visual art commissions on the side whilst strengthening his visual art skills through the online program of Watts Atelier.
It was in 2021 that Tom began to see the viability of pursuing murals as a full-time business. In April 2021, Tom completed Biboolboorn, a 5m x 5m depiction of an imagined saltwater paperbark tree. This was his first painted mural and led the way to open up more consistent murals and develop his business.
Tom Ansell
Tom Ansell is a West-Australian-based Muralist and Visual Artist interested in and practising artworks influenced and informed by both realism and surrealism. Tom completed his BA: Visual Art at ECU in 2014 before going on to study his BA: Visual Art Hons. in 2015-16. During his Honours, Tom had his first foray into public art. It was working with local sculptor, Alex Mickle, on a large project for the City of Bunbury that Tom completed his first public artwork, a 5 m-long re-imagining of the Carbet Castle, a barque that had its demise in Koombana Bay. The finished work, titled The Rescue, can be seen at the intersection of Koombana Drive and Estuary Drive, Bunbury.
In 2016, Tom completed his first mural, a 4.5m x 4m hand-drawn piece titled Sister Cities. This piece drew on Tom's fondness for drawing and mark-making, and was completed entirely in mural markers. In the years following this, Tom had a hiatus and worked as a Tutor, completed formal training to become a Lecturer at TAFE, and continued visual art commissions on the side whilst strengthening his visual art skills through the online program of Watts Atelier.
It was in 2021 that Tom began to see the viability of pursuing murals as a full-time business. In April 2021, Tom completed Biboolboorn, a 5m x 5m depiction of an imagined saltwater paperbark tree. This was his first painted mural and led the way to open up more consistent murals and develop his business.