Contemporary Wood Sculpture, Turning and Wall Art
The genesis of my work began when I was seven or eight years old. I started to doodle – flowing lines, interconnected C-curves and S-curves. These lines were not taught to me. They came naturally. They resided in my soul. I created my first wood piece in 1968. While I incorporated those flowing lines in early work, it wasn’t until the 1990′s that they became refined in my wall sculptures, such as Confluence, and then in my sculptures-in-the-round.
Available Works in Wood
OCEANIA
5″ h, 8″ diameter Bark-edge Maple Burl $ 670 The creative process for this turned and sculpted piece was, not surprisingly, multi-stepped. I began by turning the rough exterior contour on a lathe and then drilling a 1 ¼” diameter hole into the top center. The final form was achieved by sculpting both the inside
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CHOCOLATE TWIST II
8″ h, 13″ diameter Spalted Black Walnut $ 780 I created this piece simultaneously with Chocolate Twist. Experimenting with the entire concept, I decided to make Chocolate Twist II shorter by 1″ and wider by 1″. You might not think an inch either way would be noticeable, but it certainly is. As a matter of
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CHARYBDIS
5′-2″ h, 2′-3″ w, 1′-6″ d Osage Orange $ 24,675 Native Americans used Osage Orange to make their hunting bows because of its strength and elasticity. Farmers considered it a weed tree, but shaped it for fence posts and rails for its strength and longevity. I wanted to sculpt it for its color and grain
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TRAPEZE
18″h, 14″w, 3″d Crotch Burl Walnut, Wall Sculpture $ 2,075 Trapeze is an extension of the Morph Series. Some of the most beautiful and figurative wood a tree can produce is referred to as “crotch burl,” the section where the main trunk divides into two or more main upper limbs. Split it down the middle,
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MOAB
2′-0″ h, 1′-4″ w, 10″ d Bay Laurel Burl $ 1,925 Burls by their very nature are twisted, feature-rich chunks of wood. And I personally love their variations of color and texture. The more figured a piece of wood is, the simpler the design should be. The two should not be in conflict. Here,
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INFINITY RISING
1′-10″ h, 1′-1″ w, 10″ d Distressed Curly Redwood $ 3,850 I found this sizable chunk of figured Redwood at a barn sale in central Ohio. My bet is that it was originally from California. Through the aged and distress exterior, it was obvious that a treasure resided within. My design layout for this
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MORPH VI
1’- 4” h, 10” w, 6” d Black Cherry $ 3,485 It’s not nice to talk about favorites in front of the children, but Morph VI is one of my all-time favorites. The lines, movement and proportions just worked so well together. This was another difficult piece to visualize and execute. A real fun challenge.
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SPLIT PERSONALITY
1′-8″ h, 8″diameter Aromatic Red Cedar $ 2,175 Split Personality comes from the same incredible red cedar as did First Born and Passages Into the Void. I cut the top half of the tree into two sections and “rough sculpted” First Born and Split Personality as “testbeds” of designs for Passages. Then I set them
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MONUMENT MESA
2′-0″ h, 2′-2″ w, 1′-7″d American Black Walnut $ 4,500. Monument Mesa comes from the same tree as did Trapeze. It is displayed upside down from the way it grew. The top was originally a section of the trunk and the bottom was the spreading upper limbs. I selected this particular
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PASSAGES INTO THE VOID
4′-3″ h, 1′-2″ w, 1′-2″ d Aromatic Red Cedar $11,780 A home owner in Clinton, NJ, put this piece of red cedar at the curb on a brush clean-up day. Guess who claimed it? One man’s trash, as they say. New Age thinking has it that through meditation, one can slip between the spaces in
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VANILLA SKY
1′-0″ h, 2′-7″ w, 1″ d Maccacuba $ 585 Fractal geometry brings us parts that resemble the whole, which resembles the parts. (For example, a head of broccoli.) This is my second piece based on fractal geometry, Cherry Twist being the first. Vanilla Sky is also a bit of serendipity. For some time, I had
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CROSS CURRENT
1′-2″ h, 3′-0″ w, 1″ d Chechen $ 585 When I first saw Chechen at a wood distributor in New Jersey, I was fascinated by the color shifts on the blank board that I selected to sculpt this piece. Incorporating natural elements into my work is one of my favorite experiences. The end result here
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CHERRY TWIST
1′-1″ h, 5″ diameter Wild Cherry $ 325 Cherry Twist is the beginning point of my exploration into fractal geometry. Fractal forms can best be described as the whole emulating the parts, and the parts emulating the whole. I intend to pursue this concept in turnings, sculpture in the round
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POMPEII
1′-1″ h, 6″ diameter Distressed White Oak Burl $ 325 So many of my pieces originated as found treasures in a waste pile from some sort of commercial logging or clearing project. So it was with this piece of oak burl that I found at a road-clearing project on Little Pisgah Mountain, East of
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RA
11″ h, 7″ diameter Maple Burl $ 325 Ra is a departure from my usual free form work. I am drawn to antiquity for inspiration, particularly for my turned and sculpted works. Ancient vessels that were produced around the Mediterranean rim especially captivate me. In my research I came across the image of an ancient
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CALL OF THE WILD
1′-5″ h, 1′-0″ w, 6″ d Distressed Wild Cherry $ 390 This piece of wild cherry called to me from a logging trail near Boone, NC. To say it was distressed puts it mildly. It had been repeatedly driven over by logging equipment, yet its innate qualities shown through the abuse and the mud. As
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WIND DANCER
1′-3″ h, 1′-0″ w, 7″ d Spalted Wild Cherry $ 585 A friend called me to come examine the root-mat of a large wild cherry tree that grew on his property near Asheville, NC. The tree was tortuously uprooted during a 1994 hurricane. One look and I eagerly salvaged part of the tree. So did
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ROMANCING THE STONE
10″ h, 1′-3″ w, 5″ d Rhododendron & Granite $ 585 This Rhododendron root burl so tenaciously cradled that piece of granite, I had no other option when I sculpted the piece than to honor their 30+ year relationship — and to name it accordingly. The bush hosting the burl measured some 15“ high, a
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UNTITLED 01-03
2′-1″ h, 1′-1″ w, 1″ d Chechen $ 325 There are two reasons I do not title a work. First, because I can’t come up with a good name and, second, because I don’t want to influence the viewers mental and visual exploration. My reason for this piece was the latter! Chechen is an exotic,
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FLUG OBER MUOTATAL
3′-10″ h, 3′-3″ w Swiss Cherry, Wall Sculpture $ 10,825 This is number four in the Confluence Series. The piece follows the theme of Wind Drift – intensified movement, action with significantly increased numbers of penetrations. The negative space nearly equals the positive. I also incorporated stacked lamination to produce greater depth. My intention was
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GEORGIA
2′-2″ h, 1′-8″ w, 8″ d Red Oak Burl, Table Sculpture (as shown), Wall sculpture (Vertical) $ 585 Sculpted from a weathered piece of red oak that I found on my property in Madison County, NC, the parent tree had been cut for timber many years prior. This remaining hunk was all that
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My art remained an after-hours endeavor until 1994 when I finally left corporate life (a career in industrial safety engineering) and took up my art full-time. I realized this was what I was meant to do.
By late 1990, I began to feel self-conscious about basing an entire art career on something as mundane as a doodle — until I ran across someone else’s doodle. My favorite architect, Frank Gehry, materializes his concept doodles into splendid, breathtaking, ground breaking work, like the captivating Guggenheim in Bilbao. That was all the validation I needed!
Collected Works in Wood
FIRST BORN
1’-11”h, 7” diameter Aromatic Red Cedar SOLD First, a word of explanation about my process. When I get to the point of “rough sculpting” (that point where the piece is fully identified or roughed out), the fun of exploration is over. The not-so-much-fun part of refining the form and sanding
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NEW WAVE
12” h, 1’-8” w, 9” d Windshake Walnut Sold Not all C- and S-curves need be so intricate that you get lost in them (although that is nice, too). Soft undulation captivates and can also sweep you along for a ride. This piece insisted on showing off soft lines and wide broad surfaces of its
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DOWN FORCE
1’-10” h, 10” square Basswood SOLD Sculpted mobius band Down Force is the second in my major ribbon series. Quite candidly, I undertook this sculpture to counter skeptics who insisted that Up Draft, the first piece, involved steaming, bending or jig-saw-puzzling segments. Down Force, like Up Draft, is also a mobius
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PAGODA
6″ h, 5” diameter Wormy Cherry Burl Acquired IN THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF GAYE GRAVELY POLLITT Turned, then sculpted in cherry burl, I found the raw piece on a waste pile of a logging project near Boone, NC. The same pile revealed another cherry burl for my future works that I worked into Amphora. The
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UP DRAFT
2′-0″h x 1’-2″w Swiss Alpine Linde (Basswood) Sold Sculpted mobius ribbon Dreams are an important aspect of my art. When an element of one of my pieces presents me with difficulty, I leave it alone for a while and inevitably the solution comes to me in dream state. Many times, I see shapes flashing on
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THE PHOENIX
1’-4” h, 6″ w Distressed White Oak with Sculpted Rhododendron Root base Sold I found this piece of distressed curly white oak burl being used as a wheel chock underneath a pickup truck on a logging project in Madison County, North Carolina. It was covered with mud and imbedded with sand and rocks. Despite its
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LAUGHING WATERS
2’-8″ h, 8” diameter Spalted Maple Sold While I was hiking in Hunterdon County, N.J., I spotted this piece of spalted maple on the forest floor. Spalting results in a trail of carbon left when microbial action begins the decaying process in many woods, especially maples. It appears as black or brown lines or patches.
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WIND DRIFT
2’-10” h, 1’-2” w Swiss Cherry, Wall Sculpture Sold This is number three in the Confluence series. My aim in this piece was to limit size and, therefore, the amount of action. I wanted to concentrate on a smaller space and intensify the visual impact of only a few innate natural elements. I like the
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DESERT BLOOM
5” h, 10″ w Wood Species Unknown Sold The wood for this piece comes from the stump of an unknown species of ornamental tree/bush that a friend gave me from his property in Clearwater, FL. Areas of the sculpture have purple hues. This a relatively uncommon result of mineral deposits in
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WIND SWEPT
1′-9″ h, 8″ w Tulip Poplar Sold Hiking near Ken Lockwood Gorge in Hunterdon County, N.J., I found this piece of tulip poplar that had been bent over significantly by a small tree that had fallen across it. Wind action on the two trees caused continual diagonal abrasion. Simultaneously, the
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ESCHER TIDE
2’-4” h, 1’-0” w, 2” d Sisso Sold Do you know the work of M. C. Escher? The artist who drew so many wonderful brain teasers — where ramps, stairs and ladders ran both up and down at the same time depending on where you focused your eyes? This wall sculpture is named in his
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CLIFF DWELLING
1′-4″ h, 1’-7” w, 12″ d Apple Stump Burl Acquired This piece of apple wood was rescued from a pile of waste wood that was scheduled to be burned the following day. The site was near Asheboro, NC, where the property owner was reclaiming a derelict apple orchard. The piece “announced” its name to me
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NATURE’S CEREMONY
6″h x 7”diameter Walnut Burl Acquired IN THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF GAYE GRAVELY POLLITT Walnut burls are scarce. Walnuts are not as prone to this type of growth as are maples, willows, sycamore and oaks. This piece is from the stump of a large tree blown down in a hurricane that passed through New Jersey
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CONFLUENCE
2′-2″ h, 4′-5″ w Teak ACQUIRED IN THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF HARRY POLLITT Confluence represents perhaps my most personal design. The long flowing lines and undulations are a doodle that has “absent mindedly” issued forth from my pens and pencils for as long as I can remember. This wall sculpture was
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SEA RAY
5″ h, 1′-5″ w, 1′-1″ d Wormy Chestnut Sold This piece of wormy chestnut is all that remained of a century old tree found on a forest floor in Madison County, North Carolina. Wormy chestnut is nearly extinct and so this piece is a commemoration to a dying breed. Chestnuts that are infested (fear not
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BREACHING DOLPHIN
9” h, 1’ 4” w, 8” d Black Birch Sold Collectors play a role in my artistic process. They bring my process full circle. Their action of acquiring a piece says to me (even if they do not express it verbally) that they value the piece enough to want to bring it into their home,
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In 2006, I was represented by Collectors of Wood Art, del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles and Zane Bennett Gallery in Santa Fe at SOFA Chicago 2006 (Sculpture Object Functional Art). It was the first year (over the next seven years) in my honored representations at SOFA Chicago, New York and Santa Fe.
Wood had held my attention and challenged me as my art medium for forty years. To my professional satisfaction, it had become collected and recognized, including in 2011 when four of my works were selected for the book Wood Art Today II – and one, Down Force, was featured on the cover.
Yet, inside I felt something astir. Nothing I could describe or explain, it just nudged me from time to time. I had no idea who was approaching me and how my life and career was about to change when a man named Ted introduced himself during SOFA Chicago 2009. For the rest of that story, I refer you to my Glass Art.