Giuseppe Penone has installed three 30-foot tall bronze trees in Madison Square Park titled Ideas of Stone. Penone is a well-known Italian artist that has been manipulating natural materials and forms in his artwork for forty years. He was also part of the Italian Arte Povera movement, where artists used everyday subjects and materials in their work to get rid of the separation between art and life. These trees also have natural river boulders placed between their limbs. Penone has used trees as living sculptures to show the relationship between man and nature. He manipulates the trees natural form and makes it look as if the tree has grown from the lawn, but he also leaves manmade traces such as the boulders, nails, and wires to show man’s affect on nature. The tree seen here looks as if it is being weighed down by the boulders and is trying to find a way to balance everything. Penone really shows the impact that man has on nature; implying here that man needs to find a balance between nature and what is manmade. Urban landscape has torn down a lot of nature and trees in order to build many buildings, stores, and businesses, so there isn’t much balance between organic objects and manmade ones. In Manhattan, we need businesses and stores just as much as we need natural landscape and trees. Penone’s artwork also shows concepts such as weight, balance, and scale, but he is most focused on the relationship between the manmade and natural world. Penone shows the force of gravity and, once again, the need to balance gravity with these boulders. Penone used this as a metaphor for balancing life. Everyday people are making decisions and looking to balance out their lives, even when you are being weighed down you still need to find a way to keep yourself up and balanced. Penone is searching for the balance between gravity, manmade objects, and nature, just as we are searching for balance in our lives. The boulder will balance on the tree as we balance ourselves to make everyday decisions.