For years, Warren Pope would go to Tony's Trees (the seasonal name for Tony's Produce on Barton Street) and buy a big beautiful tree to put in his custom built home. With a 16 foot high ceiling he could fit in a very tall tree. But Pope is an artist, working in wire, stretched canvas and wood and about three years ago he realized he could do something else.
"I got tired of doing a tree. A tree that's been harvested just started feeling sorry for the tree."

That prompted him to apply his art skills (he has a degree in Art) to make something that was if anything, more expressive of the Christmas spirit than a tree. Using needle nose pliers and wire, he built several sections of wire sculpture, linking them with white lights, and intertwining selected ornamental items into a fully lit and decorated 15 foot tall sculpture that hangs where his trees once stood. It glows and fills the room with light, it's parts both industrial and organic as it mimics some kind of wonderful, undiscovered Christmas life form.

The process took about three weeks, Pope said, and while it doesn't have a name, some of his works do. They are all over the walls of his very modern West Seattle home, some evocative of his feelings about human folly, others expressive of his thoughts about human struggle. He's never made a Christmas piece for anyone else, though his other work is sold and seen professionally in business and personal settings. He's open to the idea of making these for others if you'd like to contact him, call him at 206-851-5871. Alternatively if you'd like to see his other work you can find it online.

He is represented in Seattle by Gallery Mack (located in the Pike Place Market).