Vanes

Elm, Santa Clara, CA
33” tall

When I look at a fallen tree or logs in an arborist log pile, I usually see only a few locations of interest for potential sculptures with a significant “story” to tell. In addition to holes and other significant defects, the obvious place to expect interesting grain is major crotch between the trunk and main branches. But I do not have a “pattern” for sculpting these unusual parts of a tree, so I experiment to find a way to expose as many of the internal features of the wood in a pleasing manner.

This starting log had four main stems, with three “crotches” between them. I also wanted to keep a representation of the original dimension of the trunks, i.e. part of the natural edges all around the piece. But the first iterations looked too bulky until I hit on the idea to leave “vanes” of wood in each stem which were connected to the tops and to the interesting crotch grain between the stems. The main crotch between the two largest stems has a lot of bark which was trapped in the skinny space between the stems as they grew thicker and thicker. If you pull apart on the two main stems you can feel it give a little. Although I originally tried to keep the vanes flat and straight, as they collectively got thinner, the whole piece began to distort slightly, so I let it be. One final point I’d like to make: it is important to integrate the base of the sculpture into the final shape. Therefore I cut out spaces in the base to compliment the vane portion of the sculpture.