Repose

Height: 25 inches

This is my first figurative sculpture in deep relief from my own wax model design. The most interesting aspect of this sculpting is the interaction of human features with the grain of the wood. I deviated from the wax model whenever I could use the grain to enhance a feature such as a shoulder, hip, knee, or breast. This sculpture was thinned from the back to reduce the overall weight so that it could be safely hung on a wall.

Unlike my abstract sculptures, where I could make initial chainsaw cuts in a way that reduced stress in the working piece, the figurative pieces needed bulk wood necessary to realistically represent the human form. I was unlucky in my choice of insufficiently seasoned cherry logs in which to sculpt my early figures, and they all cracked.

In order to reduce the chance of cracking, I transitioned to elm instead of cherry, and I sawed the logs lengthwise to remove the pith wood and to reduce the radial stress. Instead of bulk logs, I now had thick boards into which I carved deep relief sculptures and shallower, complete figures, like “Meditation.”