Creativity is a strange beast. It’s river-like in that it’s dynamic and can change channels, bringing life to one and allowing others to dry up. You are a fortunate person to have more than one viable channel.
This observation came to me when I unearthed sketches and paintings from the very late 1960s. No, they aren’t lost, DaVinci’s, and that’s OK. However, it was refreshing to see that once I could attempt to straddle two areas of art. I was very interested in perspective and depth of field, which probably influenced the complete shift to woodcarving.
Then there was the nude. I was experimenting with woodcuts, and my first wife was laughing at my portrayals of the female form. So I did a Daliesque drawing of her and made a woodcut from it. Unfortunately, the block doesn’t survive – she threw it into the fire, but one print got pressed between two empty sheets in my sketchbook. It was a rather ludicrous woodcut, which was intended. The body drapes and drips over a chair. I was a saucy and bold malapert in those days.
It was a time of discovery. I found drawings for some early sculptings. Jean Arp and Henry Moore influenced me, and I executed and sold one or two small pieces influenced by their styles. Unfortunately, I was so poor that I did not own a camera, so I have no photos of those pieces. The lumberyards were used to me scrounging for scrap to turn into carvings because I had no money. Local artists sometimes treated me like I was radioactive because I lacked any training and had no schooling. It was all just fun at that point, and for some of them, the fun may have fled as art became business.
Years ago, my oldest, then about ten, would go into the shop and pick up the curved scrap of cherry wood that came from cutting spoon, bowl, and spatula blanks. He’d grab a bucket load of those and a hot glue gun and create towers from the curved pieces over the next hour or so. I made sure only to monitor the safety aspects of his work, not what he made. He never became a woodworker, but he found his creative channels.
So creativity is a strange thing. It doesn’t like to be constrained to one channel, made to run in a conduit or become bound. We should take this as a sort of artistic Gospel. Let it flow, doodle, play—Experiment.
Creativity is a creature of its own. When it’s not playing you aren’t creating. When it is you create so fast it’s like magic. And yet when you can’t its almost torturous. Great post, Lou. I bet it’s a special feeling to look back at your beautiful carvings and realise you made them all.
You are right I like my work…we’d better like and respect what we do…how else can we expect others will appreciate it if we don’t? But the real pleasure Mason is finding other people whose creative talents stimulate yours.
And speaking about that I am really glad that you are back. I missed our converstions.
This is very true. I was made to dislike my stories by others. That’s probably a reason for my dismal figures. I have to find away to be more enthusiastic about them.
I wish I was closer to you. I’d love to join you in your workshop and watch you carve. I find the art of taking a nice piece of wood or stone and making it into something beautiful, is miraculous.
Thank you for welcoming me back I truly appreciate it.
She threw it into the fire? Was it *too* accurate? 🤣
The only way you could pull that one off was just to carve a replica of the Mona Lisa and say, “looks just like you, honey”.
It was very Daliesque . Being an admirer of that artist I thought it wonderful. I have done much better with my second wife, but I no longer offer up portraits except people’s boats.
in the style of Picasso might have been interesting.