Finally Finished with Carving

I've finally completed the cross carving started last spring. I worked on it off and on for about 6 months. It was competed in maple wood which proved difficult perhaps because of this specific piece of wood. The grain pattern and direction ran all over the place making it difficult to keep a single shape consistent. In the end I am somewhat pleased with the outcome. I guess the artist is always on the lookout for mistakes. 

I decided to give it a dark stain which certainly brought out the grain patterns. The left side grain pattern is really quite different than the right side. One of the joys of working with wood is that you don't have all of the say in the outcome especially working with hand tools as opposed to power tools. This was completely carved by hand with the exception of the initial cut of wood. I am now thinking of how it should be displayed; a chain or a frame? Also where should its destination be? Perhaps donated to a church where it can be used for contemplation.  

Working in Wood

One of my favorite art forms is wood sculpture. It is a very slow time consuming activity but I find it to be meditative and relaxing. Many of my wood projects tend to be religious in nature. There is something about the reality of the wood, the naturalness that lends the medium to religious imagery; at least for me. There is a rich tradition of wood being used to express the crucifixion of Jesus and other Biblical scenes. I feel comfortable working along side with that tradition even in a time when many artists have left it or no longer have a connection with faith. Faith, the Christian faith is integral to the story of humanity and will continue to be so.
  The above piece is one that I had planned out some time ago and I am only now digging into it. It will be an abstract cross design with many layers and finally an antique stain.

Cross Carving

Months have passed since my last post on this blog but that doesn't mean I have not been busy creating art. Much of my time has been working with my students who are now finished with school. It has been a good year working with them and seeing all of the wonderful talent these young people produce. Lots of good kids and of course lots of challenging kids but I love both groups. 

This carving was done from a solid chunk of maple, the grain going every which way making it difficult to cut correctly. It was definitely a piece of perseverance! Near the beginning of the project I almost gave it up. The rough look of the tooling was left which fits the theme of the crucifixion. The crucifixition was real, brutal and took place in human history. To Christians the crucifixition is Christ defeating death and sin. Evil threw its worst at Jesus resulting in a humiliating death only to be absorbed and transformed into salvation for mankind. What a story! 

I wanted the work to have an abstract and symbolic quality so people could see the scene with a fresh eye. The construction was methodical with a plan of approach for each carving session much of it being done at school with my students. It was a pleasure to have my students watch and ask questions as I worked, sparking many good conversations, questions about life and meaning. 

I plan on doing more work such as.

Carving of Woman's Head

I've been working on this carving for a little over a month. It has been a slow and cautious approach towards completion. That is one of the aspects of carving that I like, it is very methodical and in a sense therapeutic. I go to my garage and think about my next move, my next "attack" on the sculpture. Anyways I owe some of my progress on this to the sculptor Ian Norbury whose book I purchased on carving the female form and face. He is a very talented wood sculptor whom I learned much from by using the book. I also used my beautiful wife as a model. I took several pictures of her face to use as reference. I then sculpted a clay model which I further used as a reference. In the end the sculpture came out alright but there are plenty of mistakes that stand out. Looking back I would have done the hair differently, not in a bun. The ears especially bother me as I made them too small and too forward. But I am learning. Mistakes sharpen the artist for the next challenge, the only necessity is that you always keep your eyes out for those mistakes and not dismiss them. 

My next step is to mount the bust on a darker species of wood. I'm thinking coco bolo or dark walnut to contrast the light wood. I will then finish it off with a good oil of some sort. 

Painted Carving

I decided to paint a thin oil coat on the sculpture and then rub back a little to the previous color. I'm not sure if I like it. I'm still a little unsure about the overall sculpture, the small chin, the fact the left cheek bone is smaller than the right etc.  Well just as I tell my students, "you have to be willing to make mistakes to learn." And I will chalk this one up to the learning process. I'm in the planning stages of my next carving, which will be in Brazilian Cherry, a very dense hard wood but beautiful.

 

Another Carving

My renewed passion for woodcarving has me thinking of projects to work out. I decided on the classic head of the Native American particularly of the Eastern tribes. I researched images and chose several old photos to work from. I then rendered a digital sculpture on Sculptris, a free program related to the outrageously priced Zbrush. I would like to own  a version of Zbrush but at a nice $700 or so it won't be anytime soon. Besides Sculptris works just fine for me at this point. I wanted to work out any problems I might have in the actual sculpture digitally before I started cutting wood. 

Wood is such an immediate medium. If you mess up there is not much room for forgiveness although it can be done. On the following sculpture I cut too much off the left cheek and decided to make a repair by glueing some extra wood back on. One can tell where the repair is but because of the final finish it is not to apparent. Anyways here is the progression from start to finish. I decided to carve in high relief instead of fully round. 

Here is a better view of the final stage.