States of Being

these are about us
representations of self
allusions to small conditions of our being
minimal suggestions of the humanity which we share
i refer to states of being we all know

the intimation of a feeling
the gesture of a thought

i make reference to the condition of life
allusion to our humanity
in its greater or lesser states

how little need i say
yet still we see ourselves

i intentionally retain the feeling of the natural material from which the forms derive
give accentuation to the texture of the wood
thereby make allusion to nature
from which we sprin

in the abstraction of form
i allow viewers freedom to read as they will
each seeing according to their own experience

Work Process

My process starts when I go into the woods to search for material. I go to sites on Vancouver Island where the clear-cut logging has recently been completed. I search through the waste slash for pieces of cedar (the timber companies want only logs which are big and straight, and leave behind massive amounts of fallen wood) which have shapes which are either appropriate for the figures I have in mind, or else of interesting form, promising for some future project. This salvaged wood I truck out of the mountains and across the water to my Denman Island studio.

In working any given piece, I start with some vague notion of a final gesture in mind by cutting away all of the sapwood (prone to rot) and any other soft or rotten wood (cedars are often rotten at the heart of the root crown). Once I am down to sound wood I begin to rough out the form. I gradually and carefully remove wood (it can never be added back) until finally I get shape just as I want it. Then I smooth off the surface by sanding. Often I stop here if I want a smooth finish.

In some figures however I want to accentuate the grain pattern of the wood, as is the case with most of the pieces in this show. This I do by judicious utilization of fire and water. What remains has a rich dark colour, with the hard portion of each annual ring darker than the soft part. I then coat the wood with either varnish or beeswax.