Sculptures by JMikk
I collected this arborist log when I was beginning to sculpt bowls, but I knew I would hold it in my log pile for something other than a bowl. The reason was that a dead “limb” was trapped inside the log, i.e. the tree had grown around a limb which had died or the tree had chocked the limb as it was trapped by the growing tree. This dead limb had obvious termite damage in it, and more interestingly, it protruded from the edge, not the end of the log.
Ten years later I decided to sculpt this log, but how? The first
major cut with the chainsaw is typically the defining point for a sculpture like this. I wanted to save the place where the dead limb had been, but I did not have any idea what the internal structure of the log was like. So I cut into the log from the side opposite the limb “exit”. What I found was interesting termite damage and resulting dark staining in the sound heartwood surrounding the dead limb, so I retained most of it in the “hollow” of the sculpture. In order to reduce the bulkiness of the sculpture and reveal the grain extending from the natural edge inward, I sculpted away the outside to leave a leaf-like shape—with a hole in it. Well, I have to admit that I am a Ken Follet fan, so I borrowed the name of one of his novels I read, and so it is.