Susan Yamasaki finds wonder in birch bark art

By Allison Stupka

Sun contributor

Susan Yamasaki has been a Leelanau County resident for 18 years. Like many people here, she loves to walk in the woods. She lives on a hill up the road from Big Glen Lake and her home was in the line of devastation from straight line winds in the storm of 2015, when so many trees were downed. One of the trees was a very old birch tree. Birch trees have relatively short lives compared to the oaks, maples, beech and pines in our Boreal forests. Large ones are not very common and she was saddened by its falling. She began collecting bark from the fallen trees.

Birch bark is naturally waterproof and does not rot easily. “They give and have given us so much in their lifetimes,” she says, “Their last stage is to decompose into the soil, providing nutrients and shelter for other living things. She decided she wanted to make something from that bark that honored the life of the tree.

At a meeting late last summer, Beth Bricker and I were fortunate to meet with Susan, see her work and learn about her process. She expressed the wonder she feels for the bark. “It resists decomposition. Colors in the bark may show where the sun hit the tree year after year or might indicate a forest fire or drought or woodpecker’s work.” She showed us her small table where she works to patiently cut the bark into squares and lays them out to look at them and ultimately assembles them into a design, nails their corners onto a piece of birch plywood and then frames it in gold leaf. Sometimes she has an idea of what she wants it to look like but more often the design comes from the patterns and colors she sees. She used to use gold leaf only to frame the border of the piece or to cover a piece that looked broken, but now she uses it where she likes.

As we drank tea from black ceramic mugs, Susan explained how she now hunts for pieces of fallen birch bark. Susan only uses bark from the forest floor because the tree can be harmed if bark is peeled off of it. “If someone has a tree that has fallen they might call me to come take a look at it.” She explained how she waits for the log to dry. When the tree dies its bark can be peeled off easily from the part underneath that turns into a loamy humus. She brings it home in rounds, washes it in a mild bleach solution and dries it in the sun with rocks on it to flatten it. She also gives it a final flattening it on her heated laundry room floor.

She told us how she has always loved being outside. Susan attended art school in France one summer. The school was known for its sculpture program, but she studied drawing and painting because she wanted to be outside in the landscape. She studied art at Michigan State and then finished at Wayne State University, ultimately with a degree in Art History. She studied child development later on and earned a teaching certificate, going on to teach science at a private school in suburban Detroit before moving north to teach at a public Montessori school in Traverse City.

When I asked her about what kind or period of art she is drawn to, she told us she is drawn to art that it usually used in ceremonial ways such as African masks or Native American ritual dress.

She admires Rothko and loves the horizontalness of its work. She likes how invites one into a meditative state. “You can stare into it, she said, “and feel calm.”

While she doesn’t presume to create art that creates a meditative state, the ultimate goal of her assemblages is to give the birch tree a new life and an invitation for people to feel connected to it.

Come and see Susan’s assemblages at Lake Street Studios from Aug. 4-10. A reception for her will be held 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 4.