Untitled Work in Progress

 Carving finished, still in need of finishing and a base. This has been another side project small enough to work on at the apartment when I can't get into my studio (most of the time lately). This is a pretty ambitious piece for this scale; the whole figure is under five inches. The piece is done in quince wood, which has a fine enough grain to hold the detail even in the face. I enjoy the speed with which you can see a piece come together when working at this scale, but there is a funny effect by which small pieces feel like they look better in photos than in real life, where unless you lean in and look at them closely they tend to get overlooked...

Side Project, Completed

 I’m actually pretty happy with the way the carving came out. This leans a bit more toward realism than I usually attempt but I think it worked. Unfortunately, it was meant to be something else entirely (can you tell it was supposed to be a bear?). Really,  this is the second time I’ve finished a carving with the same plan for transforming it, and then decided against the final step (which I’m purposely not revealing). In the first case I decided the color was wrong and it wouldn’t have worked, this time I have just lost my nerve, maybe I’ll summon it the next time…

Three is the Charm

 

You see above my work in progress for Frenzy Into Folly, a show which will go up at St Paul the Apostles church  in NYC this fall.  From right to left. Attempt one: mulberry wood, a giant rotten blind void  (and several rusty nails) at ankle height. Attempt two: Osage orange, a medium sized blind void at chest height (I’d never tried Osage before, that’s some hard stuff). Attempt three, basswood, a weird knot at the ankles but I’ll work with it…