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Sam Van Aken Tree Of 40 Fruit Analysis

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Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts has some of the top 10 art programs in the country, and with professors such as Sam Van Aken, the reason becomes clear. Artist and sculptor Sam Van Aken grew up in a family farm in Pennsylvania, but spent most of his life focused in art rather than agriculture, winning various awards. Although his art has always been "inspired by nature and our relationship to nature," it was only in 2008, when he began experimenting with grafting vegetables, that he was able to incorporate his farming background into his art more literally. His, now famous, creation is ‘The Tree of 40 Fruit,’ a tree that simultaneously produces different varieties of plums, apricots, cherries, nectarines and peaches. "I'm an artist. So the whole project really began with this idea of creating a tree that would blossom in these different colors and would bear these multitude of fruit," he states. However, it wasn’t until he leased the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, which was to be torn down, that the process truly began. …show more content…

Seuss book is, in reality, nothing new. Mr. Van Aken used grafting to attach branches from 40 different types of stone fruit into a single tree. He tapes the grafts in place and lets them heal and bond with the base throughout the winter months and in most cases, the newest addition begins to blossom in the spring. "I'm working with cherries; I've had limited success with that," he says. "I also graft almonds to them, because the almond blossoms are just absolutely

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