The making process
The sensual, wonderfully odd forms of the local madrona trees are a core inspiration for my work. I harvest the outer branches of mature trees with a long-poled handsaw a couple of times a year and let them season in the studio. Ready branches hang from the ceiling, letting me scope potentials for the next piece.
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As a piece begins—and often well into it—I don’t know the gist of what I’m making. There is usually just a general sense of scale to guide the way. It’s rather like feeling about in the dark, sensing what composition the branches will take by exploring potentials.
I cut, join, and rearrange them by intuition, inviting the nature of the piece to reveal itself in the making. At the start it’s raw wood, a rough and malleable composite of various branch parts and numerous dowel joints.
It’s a gradual process of eliminating the unwanted wood and refining: contouring the surfaces for good proportion and flow, and carving the segment joints. As this is progressing, I’m also assigning and readying the mounting points for the copper elements that will extend from the branch form and activate the space around it. As the position of each piece is finalized, I glue the joints. For taller pieces, I leave a joint unglued so it can be separated for easier shipping.
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When it’s refined enough, I apply a thick coat of chalky gesso, and begin the layout and making of the tendrils, tusks and thorns. This is when the gestural essence of the figure starts to be revealed. Every aspect is being tweaked in response to everything else.
Eventually, the whole piece is gessoed opalescent white, ready for the paper skin. So far, I’ve focused on creating a dynamic form, with the hints of colors that have arrived on their own left in the periphery. Now, I invite those impressions in and contemplate the range of landscapes that will inhabit this nature spirit and the colors that evoke them.
There are innumerable choices throughout the making that feed into the feeling of motion and aliveness in a finished work. As I begin the process of applying my own handmade, multi-colored flax fiber paper, I’m seeing a fluid, three-dimensional canvas ready for the play of pattern, rhythm and sequence that’s revealed choice by choice, moment by moment.
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I lay out the palette with words and samples of the paper. Besides the wood and copper, the application of the paper skin really makes this a mixed-media process. The paper floats on the surface in a non-toxic, water-based medium, giving its play of color translucent, vivid depth.
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