New project, old materials ... resurrection

    I have spent the last few weeks working on a piece for the upcoming Marine themed juried show in Wiscasset at The Maine Art Gallery. I knew I had a piece of wood tucked away in my studio that would lend itself to the task. It was a wedge shaped piece that had a very distinctive grain that presented as an undulating wave-like pattern.

      The wedge led me immediately to the idea of a empty dory with oars askew riding the crest of a wooden wave...a tribute to those lost a sea (or just lost). I constructed the dory out of wood, oaktag, and ducktape, then added wooden oars and wire oarlocks. I had originally planned to coat the dory with epoxy clay and then stain it to look like dark metal, but decided that it would get too heavy and clumsy looking. When searching for another way to cover and color the surface of the boat, I found a Rustoleum textured spray paint at Home Depot that turned out to be the answer to the problem. I was happy with the color, texture and coverage. I was able 
to effectively spray and cover both the oarlocks and the heavy nylon string that I had attached
as the bowline of the boat.

'Memories of the Lost'...17 1/4" h

     After attaching the dory to the wave, the next challenge was to find a way to raise the piece up. Again, I looked to my stash of accumulated materials. I had a pair of 7 inch tall old wooden
spools that were the perfect size, color and patina. I also found that I had an old maple shelf with the almost identical color and patina, and I was able to cut it down to an appropriate size for the base. The combination of attaching the spools to the bottom of the wooden wedge and then to the resized maple shelf effectively gave the piece the desired height... completing the sculpture through a process of  reassembly and resurrection of rescued materials.
                                                                                                           

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