Private Commissions

Guilt Tree

2007

Commissioned by Beth Rudin DeWoody, New York, New York
Medium: Tree: glass seed beads, wire, thread; Box: archival board, blue ultrasuede, gray silk charmeuse, fabric scrolls
Dimensions: Box: 11 1/2 × 7 1/2 × 8 1/2 in.; Tree: approximately 7 × 7 × 7 in.
Photograph: Andrew Zuckerman
Artists’ Registration Number: 2007.037.001
Exhibition History: Something About a Tree, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, New York, 2013. Curator: Linda Yablonsky

Commission Overview
Commissioned by Beth Rudin DeWoody, Guilt Tree emerged during a time when we were reckoning with shame, sorrow, and endurance. Beth had already been a friend and collector who valued the emotional depth behind our work, and this piece became a deeply personal response to that moment.

Artistic Approach
The sculpture takes the form of a gray, weeping, willow-like tree—its beaded limbs hanging low and spreading softly across the ground. Each branch was painstakingly hand-sewn using thousands of gray plastic seed beads through a free-form circular peyote stitch, creating a surface that evokes both fragility and strength.

The tree rests within a blue ultrasuede box lined in gray silk charmeuse, its base cushioned by a layer of soft fabric scrolls made from remnants of our studio practice. The box functions as a container of memory—its serene outer form concealing the vulnerability of the beaded structure within.

For William, the piece became a meditation on guilt itself—a physical act of reconciliation and endurance. Each bead was a small reckoning, a gesture toward patience, responsibility, and repair.

Engagement and Impact
For Beth, Guilt Tree extended her collection of works that explore psychological and spiritual states through material beauty. For us, it was a moment of release—an object born of introspection, discipline, and the desire to transform emotion into form.

Context and Legacy
Guilt Tree stands as both companion and counterpoint to works like Anger Tree and Library Tower. Together, they trace an emotional continuum—containment, catharsis, endurance—anchored in the physical act of making. Exhibited years later in Something About a Tree at The FLAG Art Foundation, the work found resonance among other contemporary interpretations of the tree as symbol: of growth, burden, and transcendence.