I came across these images and this story on a site pointed out to me by my friend , Scott in Ohio, that features wonderful visual imagery, TwistedSifter. This particular story was about a couple in the Pampas region of Argentina who had been flying over Argentina in the early 1970’s when the wife noticed a farm that looked to her like a milking pail. The husband told her that they could do even better by making a large guitar, her favorite instrument, on their farm for all to see from above.
A few years later, the wife died unexpectedly from a cerebral aneurysm and the husband and their children set about creating that guitar in her memory. What they created is quite remarkable. It is about 2/3 of a mile in length, formed from over 7000 trees that they planted and nurtured. The outline of the body of the guitar and the star shape around the center are cypress trees and the area making up the fretboard are eucalyptus trees which give it a beautiful blue tint.
It’s a magnificent tribute, a grand piece of land art. I was struck by the satellite images that show the guitar from various altitudes. The middle one below, in particular, is my favorite, looking as though it would be a great painting or quilt with a simple guitar shape woven into its patchwork, with the varying colors laying out in front of it as though they represented the sound of the guitar’s music coming from it.