After seeing Jonah Ward’s artwork at the Clif Family Winery tasting room, a representative from Somnium Wines contacted Ward and asked if he’d be interested in creating a piece of art for their new tasting room in Calistoga, CA. They wanted someone to extract an oak tree trunk that was burned on their vineyard during the 2020 Glass Fire. This project was unique compared to Ward’s normal art series where he burns panels of wood with molten glass but felt that it had some very serendipitous ties to his other burnt forest art installation he was, at the time, creating for the Palo Alto Art Center, and accepted the challenge.
So with a team of four and a chainsaw, the 500 lb. trunk was cut down and transferred to Ward’s workshop in Vallejo. When deciding how to transform the tree into a piece of artwork, Ward wanted to learn more about the tree’s story and its significance to the vineyard. Ward learned that when the Glass Fire tore through the property in 2020, it destroyed over an acre of vines as well as this tree, which once perched dramatically on the hillside overlooking the valley floor below. Somnium’s proprietor and famed race car driver, Danica Patrick, put off cutting down the final section of the gnarled trunk for two years because it represented all that had been lost in the fire. In 2022, however, she decided it was time an artist created something from the remaining portion of the tree.
With this information, Ward sought to honor the oak’s story as well as celebrate the founding of something new – Somnium’s Calistoga tasting lounge, and the planting of Cabernet Franc to replace the damaged vines in the vineyard. By coating the entire tree stump in a natural polyurethane made from whey, Ward froze the oak in time to capture its trauma and fragility. He then filled the tree with over 5,000 “grape tendrils” created from glass, symbolizing regrowth in the face of adversity, and the indomitable perseverance of hope. Ward added casters to the base so the trunk was movable, and lights that shot upwards and inwards, lighting the glass from within, giving it a sense of new life and rebirth. Ward aptly titled the piece “Fortitude” for all that it represents.
The final piece was installed at the winery’s new tasting room where it greets guests as they walk in. The sculpture fits in perfectly with the space, which was completely renovated by VonSaal Design and has a whimsical, yet modern feel. On the wall behind the sculpture is a silhouette of the tree before it burned down, giving context to the sculpture and completing the story.
If you’d like to see this special piece yourself while tasting Somnium’s boutique wine portfolio, feel free to book a tasting on their website here.
