He loved nature.  He received a bachelors of arts degree and went to Lancaster Art College.  He made trees out of limbs because he wanted to express the beauty of nature in art using natural materials.  He also made a lot of ice sculptures.  He is a photographer and he used it to take photographs of his art.  He has made a film called Rivers and Tides.  This is about him as a person and his art.

He only uses nature as a tool.  He says he sees death a lot and used it in his art.  He saw death as an important part of life.  He worked from age 13 on a farm.  He says farming is a very sculptural activity.

He was spanked when he didn’t study the Bible or didn’t memorize it correctly.  But what he really wanted to read were books about birds by Audubon and books about American Forests.

He made inventions like clocks, barometers and thermometers and showed them at the state fair.  People thought he was really smart and he went to a University.   He didn’t get a diploma because he wanted to study all sort of things at once.  (In a University, you have to take a path of study and then you get a diploma in that subject.)

He actually had an accident and was blind for a while.  When he could see again he really wanted to see nature and all the beautiful things in the world.  He trekked all over, even to Alaska and Florida.

He married a woman named Louise many years after he moved to California.  They had two daughters, Wanda and Helen.  He worked with President Theodor Roosevelt to set aside millions of acres of forestland for National Parks.  He also founded the Sierra Club which helps preserve nature to this day.

By Theodora Downing