Root+Monster

Date: 1968
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1986/1986.65.238_2a.jpg?itok=pTqAi77k width="304" height="305" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/root-monster-3796"]] || Title: **Root Monster**

Artist: **Miles Burkholder Carpenter** Born: Brownstown, Pennsylvania 1889 Died: Petersburg, Virginia 1985

Medium: carved and painted tree roots, rubber, metal, and string Dimensions: 22 5/8 x 28 5/8 x 28 1/4 in. (57.5 x 72.7 x 71.6 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson

Accession: 1986.65.238 || "There's something in there, under the surface of every piece of wood. You don't need no design 'cause it's right there, you just take the bark off and if you do it good you can find something." An experienced lumberman, Carpenter cut trees and collected fallen branches and roots in the area around his home in Waverly, Virginia. He added rubber ears, painted stripes, and carved jaws to a straddle-legged root to create this dynamic creature. The mouth makes a clacking sound when the string and rubber bands attached to the heads are manipulated.
 * Exhibition Label: **


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * How would you define "sculpture"?
 * How is Root Monster balanced?
 * If Root Monster was a real animal, where might he live?


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Key Concepts: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Media
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Balance: Asymmetrical
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Design: Rhythm and Repetition

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Links: **