Mystic Oak Art & Process

The Inspiration

Mystic Oak was loosely derived from a dream I had involving a big oak tree and a pentacle beaming from inside of it. Melissa Parra Morrow brought out her own imagination, reminding me of the 400-year-old Angel Oak tree in Charleston, SC which happened to be near where she was living at the time. While we communicated the initial vision of the piece, Melissa had a very clear idea of it the entire time, all while leaving room for the fluidity of not really knowing how the final piece would turn out.

Prepping the Barrel Head for the Collage

Prepping the Wood Foundation

To begin this project, I broke down the Water for Life barrel and shipped Melissa two barrel heads to be used as the panel for the collage. Once Melissa received it, she got to work preparing the foundation of the piece. First, she filled in all the cracks with wood glue and attached a birch circle to the top of the barrel head with screws. The screws were caulked and the birch was sanded to create a smooth collaging surface. Finally, the edges were taped and a first layer of resin was applied. After 48 hours of drying, a clear coat was added to the charcoal back of the barrel head to preserve its original nature. After a little more drying time the piece was ready to begin the collage.

The Collage Creation Process

With the themes in mind, Melissa began sketching the Oak Tree and its branches. Once this foundation of a shape was established, she sifted through hundreds of trays of magazine clippings to gather the imagery that would encapsulate the magic of the Oak Tree. When all the pieces found their place, a photo was taken to be a reference.

All of our pieces require a hi-res photo to be taken in order to digitize the artwork for the creation of the label. The reflective nature of this piece made it trickier to capture that digital photograph, so it was constructed completely 2-dimensionally before any resin layers were added. It was then photographed, disassembled, and re-assembled 3-dimensionally into 8 layers of resin.

Mystic Oak, Pouring Resin

Assembling the Collage & the Resin Process

Each piece is individually taped on the back with heavy-duty packing tape before being cut, arranged, and glued together. These sections are arranged based on which layer of resin they will be included and help give each layer depth. For example, the back branches are set deeper than the front branches of the tree, giving it a 3-dimensional effect. A clear coat is added and then the resin. One of the first layers is the glow-n-glitter medium used in the hole of the tree to emphasize the presence of the pentacle. The pentacle shape is added a few layers later to give depth. The resin is poured evenly and a butane torch is used to pop any bubbles. There is a minimum of 24 hours of drying time between each layer. Once dry, the resin surface is sanded to give it tooth for the next resin layer to adhere to. Another collage section is glued to the resin surface, brushed with three layers of clear coat medium, and left to dry. The clear coat prevents the resin from bleeding into the paper and causing discoloration. The process repeats. A total of eight layers of resin are on the Mystic Oak piece. The final touch is a painted filigree border around the edge of the piece. It dried for 48 hours before being mailed back to San Francisco, California.

In total, there are 322 pieces – 69 leaves, 15 mushrooms, and 6 bottles. There are 8 layers of resin. Mystic Oak is over 2” thick and weighs 25 lbs.

Read the Story of Mystic Oak.

Assembling the Mystic Oak Collage