LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18)– If you’ve driven down Richmond Road in Lexington lately, you may have wondered what is going on with that stump at Ashland.
Well, now that stump has been transformed into something spectacular.
Visual artist and Kenyan native Kiptoo Tarus used a chainsaw to make something spectacular out of the old stump.
“The grain itself… the spalling and the way it was formed and broke away, it had a lot of energy in it that really resonated to me,” he said.
In 2013, the diseased tree was taken down in an ice storm. The stump sat there untouched until Tarus approached Jim Clark with the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation with his idea.
After about a month’s work, the old stump has been transformed into a portrait of a horse.
Tarus called the piece Maji Mazuri, which is Swahili for Good Waters.
“It’s a great way to make history come alive and give us new ways to talk about the property here,” said Jim Clark with the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation.
The piece was made possible through a grant from the city’s corridors commission. A public dedication will be held on January 20 at 4:15 p.m.
