Art by Local Teen Yields a Tree for a Tree

William Saucedo is an 18-year-old artist with a knack for giving back. Every time Saucedo sells one of his wire-wrapped trees, he plants a real one in its honor. 

Each tree is a unique piece of art, but most of them have a natural base like a piece of wood from a tree or a rock from a mound. Saucedo relates his medium back to his greatest inspiration: nature.

"I like to observe nature and all the subtle details," Saucedo said. 

Some of the trees have life molded into them, like an owl or flowers.

Saucedo is a big fan of graphite, but he focuses on the wire-wrapped trees due to their success.

After his first art class during freshman year, Saucedo said that he was hooked on art and that it became much more than just a hobby. He worked with any medium he could get his hands on, including wire.

For Saucedo, the creative aspect is only a piece of the overall artistic puzzle. The link that brings the work full circle is the planting of new trees. 

"I was thinking about how I could tie my trees even closer to the real thing and I thought it'd be interesting to have each wire tree have a real, growing counterpart," Saucedo explained.

To date, Saucedo has planted eight trees and said that there are more on the way.

Saucedo, like any young artist, has his favorite artists to look up to. Salvador Dali and Asher Durand are at the top of his list.

The wire-wrapped trees are available for purchase at Artistic Studio 30. Additionally, Saucedo said that his website should be up and running in just a few weeks, where online ordering will be possible.

With a bright future, a giving attitude and enough wire to last a lifetime, Saucedo said that he plans on earning a fine arts degree in college and making a career out of his passion.

"I realized art had grown to more than just a hobby for me when I noticed that I spend more time working on my art than anything else," Saucedo said.