It was in the fall of 1990, while staying on a cousin’s farm in Vermont’s Green Mountains that David Rogers encountered a maple sapling bent over from previous winter’s ice storm. There was something about the curvature and posture of this particularly ravaged tree – a backbone to a large beast, perhaps that suggested a new life for the tree. Using dried branches and different varieties of tree saplings a “dinosaur” sculpture emerged in twelve inspired days. This first large-scale branch construction sculpture encompassed and crystalized all of his previous work and life experience. It would forever transform his perception of what could be conceived and created using all-natural materials.

At the age of thirteen David learned to weld and built abstract steel-welded sculptures, using salvaged car parts and other found scrap materials. By age fifteen he had begun experimenting with found forest materials. Using dry branches and rope-lashing techniques, he assembled different kinds of abstract structures. Ironically, at this early stage David had already steel-welded his first insect dragonfly and a housefly.

From his late teens to early twenties, David worn a lot of hats; cabinet and sailboat builder, home restorer, cabdriver, actor, and even a magician’s assistant. Through it all, the call to create was always present. In 1985, with a serious devotion to rustic design using all natural materials, he developed a very ornate bent-sapling construction style named “Victorian Rustic.” By 1990, David had completed a series of branch and sapling construction “dinosaur” sculptures, among many other rustic works. He first conceptualized the idea and early designs of what would become the Big Bugs the following year. …continue reading →