Circuit Tree

Joe Liles, standing next to the cupola on top of Watts Hall.

Circuit Tree

2015

Out to the west side of Bryan Center, there has been for over 100 years an undeveloped grassy lot and a very old, magnificent willow oak tree. I loved this tree and still do. I did a drawing of the trunk, limbs, and shape of the tree. I used an early version of AutoCAD to turn the limbs of the tree into polylines (thick straight lines), and I put circles on the ends of the polylines. I filled in the circles with black ink with my Rapidograph pen and used the pen to draw the roots of the tree. Thus, a tree made of circuits, or “Circuit Tree,” was born. It became my most popular circuitboard print. I sold copies all over the world! I even had a lady write me an email from Europe asking if I would give her permission to tattoo “Circuit Tree” on her back! I gave her my blessing if she would send me a photo when it was finished. She did, let’s leave it at that. Now I should explain that the original edition of 20 “Circuit Tree” prints was produced in 1989. I sold out of these and, in 2015, produced a second edition of 26 prints. There are only a few of these left, and there will not be any more editions.