A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Tree of Life
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
THE ART OF THE TREE OF LIFE
By Jim Korkis
The Tree of Life, the centerpiece of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, was meant to be a work of art that would be a tribute to mankind’s respect for nature and life on earth.
(c) Disney
Eleven sculptors were engaged to work together to bring the artificial icon to life. That team included a sculptor from France (Fabrice Kennel), another from Ireland (Vinnie Byrne), three Native Americans (Parker Boyiddle, Craig Goseyun, Arthur Rowlodge), five Floridians (Eric Kovach, Steve Hunke, Joe Welborn, Gary Bondurant, Jacob Eaddy) and one sculptor from Indianapolis, Indiana (Roger White).
The animal sculpting was supervised by WDI senior show production designer and art director Zsolt Hormay, to keep it all consistent.
“It was really important that the look of the tree flows without any interruption,” Zsolt said. “The sculptors met every morning, studying a pile of wood for reference. They would discuss what each branch should be: a banyan, an emerging oak, a touch of cedar.”
That same pile of wood served as inspiration for the textures of the animals like the stripes on the tiger being banyan bark and the octopus’ skin modeled on oak.
The intent was to carve more than 350 animals into the base and branches and the art was to feature a mixture of styles, with some animals blending in and others standing out with high detail.
“People might look at the trunk and they might think, ‘It’s just brown bark’ but it’s more complicated than that, “said production designer Ron Esposito. “We used 50 to 60 color values to reveal the animals while maintaining naturalism. The tree has a dry side and a wet side, five different moss colors, multiple lichen colors as well as brown tones, overtones, and shadow tones.”
“I feel that we achieved it successfully as far as trying to create a look where the animals were grown by the tree and not just stuck on the surface,” said Zsolt.
To achieve that effect, the artists had to sculpt the animals directly onto the tree, while wearing hard hats, working on scaffolding and immersed in the distracting and loud sounds of a construction site.
“In the beginning, it was a little difficult to get used to creating a sculpture every day and the fact that we just spray the cement on, you form it and by the time the sun goes down, it has to be done,” recalled Zsolt.
Each artist was able to sculpt an animal or two and dedicate it to family members. Zsolt’s daughter wanted him to sculpt a koala for her and so he did. He also did a baboon for his wife and a scorpion for his son.
Zsolt and the other artists found the experience emotionally moving and it helped them to better understand the importance of the tree to communicate to guests the wonder of nature and animals on earth.
“You can find a tree of life in various cultures, going back thousands of years,” stated Zsolt. “To me, it’s really uplifting that we can have a Tree of Life here at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and have it function as an important messenger to the people.”
Someone who ended up having a personal emotional attachment to the structure was famous wildlife researcher Jane Goodall. During the early work on the tree, she walked the site and asked her guide, animal care expert Rick Barongi, where the chimpanzee would be placed.
There had been no plans to include one but Zsolt found one of Goodall’s photographs of David Graybeard, the first chimpanzee to accept Goodall into his society, opening the door for her groundbreaking research. Zsolt and Kennel sculpted the chimpanzee in three days and it is at the entrance to the attraction.
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Thanks, Jim! For more on the new nighttime shows at the Tree of Life, see this. And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew
, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.
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