 | I recently completed a sculpture for the upcoming "Wild Things" themed show at River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta. When I found out the theme of the show I knew that I had a piece of wood put aside that had "wild" potential. It was split piece of firewood that was about 17" long. The split side of the log was was pretty much hollowed out. The barked side had an elongated ridge down the length of it and a round ridged opening where it had lost a branch at the end of the ridge. It looked like a shrouded screaming face. I proceeded to "remove the shroud" and reveal the face. |  |
 | Removing bark is always a bit of an adventure because you don't know exactly how thick it is and you never know what you will find underneath it. As I started to shape the nose area I found that the underlying wood was very light colored. The exterior off the bark had great texture and I knew I wanted to retain as much of it as I could, but I also found that the underneath layers had interesting color patterns. The trick was going to be to achieving a visual balance between the different colors and textures on this 3-dimensional form. |
I began slowly bringing out and shaping the nose area using chisels and my Dremel tool with a sanding drum attachment. I continually had to make assessments as to how much definition I wanted in the features and how the emerging light wood was integrating with the remaining bark areas. Eventually I committed to creating more definition to the end of the nose and separating it from the mouth area by removing more bark from the area between the end of the nose and the top lip. I also decided to refine the mouth by gradually removing more bark from the area surrounding it.
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As I started revealing more of the light wood along the sides off the nose, I made the choice to use my Dremel tool sanding drum to shape heavy lidded eyes in the bark. Sanding the bark revealed some interesting layered color patterns. I continued using the Dremel to shape the areas around the eyes and the cheek bones, and to refine the shape of the nose. My final decision on the face was to remove a curved section of bark at the top of the forehead. This served to reduce the amount of visual weight at the top of the piece, create downward flow into the facial features, and mirror the shape of the mouth.
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The next step was to refine the surface on the back side with chisels and sandpaper and then seal the entire piece with satin finish polyurethane. Finally I mounted it with a metal rod onto a 7" x 6 3/4" x 3" block of Sapele wood that I had also sealed with satin poly. The finished piece stands 22" high. I will be entering it in the "Wild Things" show which will run from August 16th through September 12th at the River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta.
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"Call of the Wild" ... sealed & mounted
*Photos by Jay York Portland, Maine
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