The Fruit Growers News - January 2001

A New York artist is making art out of fruit trees to draw attention to the plight of apple growers.

Richard Bannister went out with a truck and a compressor and painted a pear tree white. Then he handpainted every pear purple. He did the same with apples.

“Most people don’t even know that apples grow on trees anymore,” Bannister said. He explained what’s happening in the fruit industry to reporters who found interest in the tree art.
Bannister is also well known for “The Big Apple,” a giant sculpture he created in the western New York town of Medina.
The apple sculpture is more than 10 feet tall, weighs more than 10,000 pounds and is 40 feet from the edge of the Erie Canal in a park. It is visible from Main Street and from a couple of different bridges.

Bannister, who has worked in agriculture all of his life, patterned the sculpture after a Red Delicious apple. “It’s going to be dedicated to apple growers in western New York,” said Bannister about the sculpture. “I wanted to do something in memory of my grandpa.”

David Robert Nesbitt operated Pine Hill Farm in Albion, N.Y. Bannister is one of the oldest of Nesbitt’s 33 grandchildren and one of seven siblings who all live back in New York state. Most of his friends and relatives are involved in some way with agriculture.

Bannister received a grant for $2,500 from the New York State Council of the Arts and other donations (including $2,700 out of his own pocket) totaling close to $10,000 to complete the project. Those costs do not include the 650 hours he put into the project in 1999 and 150 hours this year.

“All my satisfaction came from work ethic of doing the piece,” said Bannister. The sculpture is made out of white cement, marble chips and marble dust over a steel support armature. He used cement rebar to make the shape of the apple. He said he had a firm come and spray the apple with shot crete, which is typically used to spray swimming pools and parking garages.

Bannister first made a two-foot tall model of winterstone and then a four-foot model of marble chips, white cement and silica sand. The finished apple was constructed using shot crete, welded rebar, plate steel, steel I-beams, steel pipe, fiberglass and polyester resin, reinforced concrete, mesquite wood, and even has a PVC pipe drain to remove water from its top.

He made the final touches to the apple sculpture by attaching two green leaves made out of the mesquite wood from Mexico to a steel stem.

Bannister has carved out a unique career for himself combining agriculture and art. He has worked on New York apple farms for the last 20-30 years. He got involved in agriculture at age 10 when his dad decided to buy a farm to keep Bannister and his twin brother busy. His father turned to science for his own career, leaving Bannister and his brother to manage the farm. At that time they raised sheep, hogs and chickens, and grew apples on 15 acres.

Since 1964 Bannister has worked for Pine Hill Farms in Albion. “My main income is through agriculture,” he said. Bannister said he was one of the first in the state to start harvesting cherries mechanically. After Pine Hill stopped growing cherries, Bannister bought all the cherry harvesting equipment. He has worked on many New York farms and harvested a lot of cherries. He later started his own business of mechanically thinning peaches. That business takes him from Alabama to six states on the East Coast several months out of the year.

His art education began after a tour of duty in Vietnam. Bannister took advantage of the GI Bill and found Mexico an inexpensive place to go to school and raise a family for under $3,000 per year. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Fine Arts Academy in San Miguel de Allende, northwest of Mexico, City.

After his return to western New York he continued his art studies. His own personal collection of 100 pieces include cherry, black walnut and black marble.

“In my personal opinion, the smaller the operation the higher the quality,” he said.