Art class

The apple-shaped earth and we upon it, surely the drift of them is something grand,

I do not know what it is except that it is grand, and that it is happiness . . . .

—Walt Whitman

Sculptor (and orchardist) Linda Hoffman cites these words as inspiration for her Bronze work, "This Apple-Shaped Earth."

The scupture can be viewed as part of an exhibit on the right bank of the Muddy River in Brookline, Massachusetts, through September 5.

Hoffman's work is not the only apple-inspired figure in this collection.

"Johnny Appleseed Plants a Tree," by Madeline Lord (with Stephen Paulson) does homage to the hagiography of John Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed.

The barefoot figure of Chapman holds a shovel and a sapling while wearing old clothes and a pot for a hat.

Hoffman's Apple Earth is a bronze casting of a figure carved from the boll of a tree. Lord carved Johnny's hands, feet, and face of oak.

Appleseed is made of carved oak, metal, and clothing.

These are two of 13 works in "The Ground We Walk," an exhibition curated by Studios Without Walls. 

The exhibit is in Riverway Park, near the Longwood MBTA stop, until September 5.

Hoffman grows apples and art at Old Frog Pond Farm, an organic apple u-pick, in Harvard, Massachusetts.

John Chapman was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, before becoming known as Johnny Appleseed. 

The facts of his life, and his ascent from historical figure to pot-wearing folk hero, are documented in Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard: A Cultural History, by William Kerrigan (John Hopkins University Press, 2012).

Walt Whitman, A Song for Occupations.