Please enjoy the following music as I have these past...couple months:
My Morning Jacket - Regularly Scheduled Programming
Joe Strummer - Earthquake Weather
Winter is over. Spring has sprung and with it comes the spring slaughter. This winter was punishing. I can't remember a winter this bad. But somehow, I survived. Maybe being occupied with my obsession with Haida and Tlingit woodcarving got me through.
After I finished the shark (per request from my daughter) I spent time copying a beaver made by Charles Edenshaw. He was a famous and well respected Haida woodcarver that's regarded as the "Michelangelo of the Pacific Northwest." I think it's a great idea to compulsively copy great art until it morphs into something uniquely yours. Or until you are so great at copying that you're being paid top dollar for reproductions or forgeries. I don't have the patience to do something twice.
I refer back to Juan. Juan is an architect, artist, and mentor that taught me figure-drawing (among many other things) in college. We became good friends. During a live drawing session he once snuck over my shoulder and in his thick Venezuelan accent said "amigo, you're losing the grace of the breast." He then took the pencil and redrew the breast of the model on my paper.
Juan's daily mantra was "then again, keep moving." He was old school. He went to art school when laziness and emotional sensitivity were not tolerated. He emphasized the importance of speed drills and continually drafting and sketching. Moving is all I've been trying to do this winter. I've just been carving on scraps on timber, loosely, and with reckless abandon. I'm essentially sketching three-dimensionally. No expectations.
As I continue to pare away the waste more and more I've noticed I'm also paring away the noise in my life. The meaningless chatter of the day is being scooped out and flung on the ground like a wood shaving. My dreams have been even more potent and bizarre than they've ever been. It's as if I'm rewiring my brain.
Being forced to stay in the grotto means I'm forced to used small scrap timber. Milling from large stock was not an option because of the weather. But this is liberating because it's freeing up necessary space. I'm surrounded by scrap wood and offcuts that I'm too neurotic to get rid of. Most woodworkers are like this. But now I've become engulfed in a sea of detritus like a real beaver. Using small stock frees up space in both the grotto and my mind.
It was my daughter that really got me to not be so precious and use what remains. Since she was 5 she would follow me around my working area and steal all the small offcuts and squirrel them away in her bedroom. She'd draw little images and phrases on them and then leave them somewhere for me to find. She called them "artifacts."
She doesn't do this much anymore. But I've picked up the habit.
I've been working on this crow's head. Back in October a crow flew into the grotto, did 3 spins over my desk and then flew out the door. I couldn't believe what I was watching. Crow's are much bigger than you'd think. Wingspan is about 40." It was a great distraction.
Carving will slow down but not stall now that thaw is here and I'll be back to work. I've several large projects beginning tomorrow. But making time to continue to carve is a priority for me.
Last dispatch I promised some chainsaw talk.
MTF