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Art that carves its own niche
Wall Sculpture With Four Leaves by Dennis Elliott
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By BRANDY STARK
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 11, 2001
An exhibit by Florida woodworkers is evidence that this organic medium can adapt to playful and meditative moods and aesthetic and practical uses.
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Florida Craftsmen Gallery celebrates the talents of 16 Florida artists in "The Exotic & the Esoteric: Florida Woodworkers," a diverse display of the ways the pliable material can be augmented through color, texture and imagination.
Jerry Moore's whimsical Pan Fish features a school of fish mingling with aquatic plants. A piece of metal wire, representing a fishing line, draws the eye to a stray fish preparing to gobble the wooden worm at the hook's end. Charles Parkhill displays the more abstract Spanish Dancer, which solidifies a beat taken from a spicy Latin song. Seminole artist Albert Zimmerman combines utilitarian art with furniture fascination to create his three-legged untitled chair.
Raymond Ferguson's spalted pecan and walnut work Vessel uses the intricate patterns of the wood's grain and skillful carving to create an overall effect of water flowing over the wood. Dick Codding's untitled cherry piece, similar to Ferguson's in form, captures a different aspect of water through its intricately carved fishscale pattern.
Robert Hargrave's artistic statement is to "battle plywood's negative reputation" by creating art with it. Both Vertical Story, with its distinct color and smaller, detailed shapes, and Anenome, which stands on richly stained and delicately curved legs, show little relation to plywood's usual role in construction.
Stephen J. Fox transforms recycled wood for his work Jewelry Chest on Stand. The gentle golden shimmer in the piece's finish aligns it with the treasures it is meant to hold. John Penrod's gently curved, untitled bowl is birthed from the base of a queen palm tree, known for being difficult to sculpt.
Some works are designed to interact with the audience. Dennis Elliott, whose career includes drumming in the rock band Foreigner, creates the interactive Gemini Orbital Crescent Series. Three wooden pieces are linked by a metal rod. Each piece differs in form, texture and function, with the lowest section shaping the statue's base. Above it hangs an orb, with a hole in the middle, surrounded by a crescent, the two pieces moving independently. Every movement creates a new work, allowing the audience to view different planes and features of the wood.
Fraser Smith mixes refined woodworking skills with other art media to create his optical illusions. The classy Coat appears to be a black leather jacket, complete with liner, zippers and snaps, suspended by a clothes hanger. Smith's clever use of oil stains and shadowing fools the eye into seeing wrinkles and folds in the "cloth," but the entire work is actually carved from a single piece of wood.
Dinner Music, by Candace Knapp, adds a humorous twist to the show. A large wooden fork holds the pasta-like strands of a wooden trumpet between its prongs. Next to it is Grinzing Violin, whose shape stretches to assume the artist's visual interpretation of the music produced by its real-life counterpart.
"I find that because wood comes from a living material it contains a lot of energy," Knapp explains. "Artists who push beyond using just the shape of the tree can create works that utilize the warmth and dexterity of this medium. As wood lends itself to different shapes it becomes, in essence, a reincarnation of the tree it came from."
Art review
"The Exotic & the Esoteric: Florida Woodworkers" at Florida Craftsmen Gallery, 501 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. Through Oct. 26; 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Call (727) 821-7391.
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