With crooked boughs like question marks, a long-dead but brightly painted madrona tree near Pritchard Park was created, like most art, to elicit contemplation.

The piece, created by island artist Diana Liljelund, was the culmination of a long effort that included relocating the 3,200- pound tree to its current spot near the park’s entrance, where it spent the last year following its inclusion in an art exhibit.

Dubbed “The Immigrant,” the tree was aimed at symbolizing man’s relationship with nature and the struggles that face newly arrived inhabitants as they adapt to unfamiliar surroundings.

But through its figurative uprooting – the tree is actually embedded in a large block of cement that sits atop the gravel parking lot – by vandals who overturned the piece, Liljelund’s art provoked in its viewers an unanticipated response.

“Land art is always going to be vulnerable to the actions of the viewer,” she said. “Part of the goal is to engage people in a dialogue. I suppose you could say this is a type of dialogue, but it’s not the most positive one.”

The piece has been at the park since last June. It is unknown who tipped it over or why they might have done so. Offensive graffiti also was carved into its trunk.

The tree was originally rooted near the Koura farm berry barn, before it was felled by disease and given to Liljelund to turn into art.

She didn’t log her hours, but figured she spent the better part of a month working on the project, first peeling the bark by hand and then sanding the wood before painting it a vibrant red and securing it in its new base.

It took a forklift and a back hoe with a crane attachment to load the mammoth sculpture onto a flatbed truck and transport it to Pritchard Park to join last year’s “Collocation” outdoor exhibit, in which several pieces of “land art” like Liljelund’s were displayed.

The exhibit’s other pieces came down as planned last September after spending the summer on display.

But following several requests by fans of the tree to keep it there permanently, Liljelund gifted the piece to the city.

There it remained, in its original spot overlooking Eagle Harbor and the Seattle skyline for the past year, until someone tipped it over on July 12.

It has since been righted, but several branches broke off and the pre-existing splits in the trunk were exaggerated as a result of the fall.

Liljelund figured the piece would have only lasted a few more years. Its natural deterioration was intended to be symbolic of its assimilation into the surrounding landscape, but the vandalism has only accelerated the tree’s inevitable decline.

She doesn’t know yet how long the city plans to display her Collocation exhibit, was saddened by the vandalism.

She referred to another instance of damage that occurred during the exhibit, when someone burned several small pieces of vellum that were part of a larger piece of artwork.

That, she said, was disappointing to see, but required much less effort and planning than tipping over a nearly 2-ton tree.

“I’m torn because there’s a fine line between malicious mischief and something like this that seems to be much more than just a momentarily stupid gesture,” Tollefson said.

“I don’t want to make a huge political issue out of this, but it is sad. People don’t have respect for things they don’t understand.”

She attributed the incident to secluded places like Pritchard Park that lend themselves to mischief, but was careful not to overreact.

Still, both Liljelund and Tollefson said it did raise some concern in their minds about how to protect future outdoor exhibits around the island, including the new Japanese Internment Memorial being built at Pritchard Park, from suffering similar degradation.

Liljelund said vandalism won’t deter her from future creative expression.

Rather than building fences or taking other preventative measures against vandals, she said, increasing awareness should be a paramount concern.

“I wouldn’t stop doing what I’m doing,” she said. “If anything, it convinces me that we need more focus on art and expression than ever because people that would do something like this don’t have enough constructive things to do.

“We need to promote education and awareness so that artists can connect with people and places in a positive way.”