Category: woodworking

Garuda

Bayan Gandung, “White Garuda Mask”, Indonesia

Garuda is the vahana, or the carrier, of Lord Vishnu. Garuda is depicted as having the golden body of a strong man with a white face, red wings, and an eagle’s beak and with a crown on his head. He was said to be massive, large enough to block out the sun.

His stature in Hindu religion can be gauged by the fact that a dependent Upanishad, the Garudopanishad, and a Purana, the Garuda Purana, is devoted to him. Various names have been attributed to Garuda – Chirada, Gaganeshvara, Kamayusha, Kashyapi, Khageshvara, Nagantaka, Sitanana, Sudhahara, Suparna, Tarkshya, Vainateya, Vishnuratha and others. The Vedas provide the earliest reference of Garuda, though by the name of Śyena, where this mighty bird is said to have brought nectar to earth from heaven.

However, the interesting thing is that Garuda is the Sankarshna form of the lord who during creation primarily possesses the knowledge aspect of the lord (among Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha forms). The important point is that Garuda represents the five vayus within us : prana, apana, vyana, udana, samana through his five forms Satya, Suparna, Garuda, Tarkshya, Vihageshwara. These five vayus through yoga can be controlled through Pranayama which can lead to Kundalini awakening leading to higher levels of consciousness.

Thanks to http://www.worldtribalmasks.com

Kosho Busshi

Kosho Busshi, “Portrait Statue of Priest Kuya”, Painted Wood, 13th Century’ Rokuhara Mitsuji Temple, Kyoto, Japan

Around 1198, Kōshō worked together with his father Unkei and his two brothers Tankei and Kōben on restoring the Niō-Niten statues at Tōji Temple in Kyoto. In 1208 he worked on the restoration of the Kōmokuten statue at Kōfukuji Temple in Nara.

Kūya Shūnin  was a famous 10th-century Japanese monk who gained the monikers “Sage of the People” and “Sage of Amida, for he walked among the common folk preaching simple faith in Amida Buddha while praying constantly to Amida for their salvation. During his many years of traveling around the countryside, he practiced a form of chanting that employed song and dance (odorinenbutsu). In this realistic portrait sculpture, there are six miniature Amida images flowing out of his mouth – they represent his prayers, specifically the chanting of the six-character devotional nenbutsu to Amida (Namu Amidabutsu). Kuta is shown with simple facial features, dressed in peasant’s garb with wrinkled clothing, wearing straw sandals, and holding a stick to beat his gong for the odorinenbutsu, with bodily veins even visable. The six characters of Amida’s nenbutsu symbolize the six states of karmic rebirth.

Tim Hawkinson

2006, Indianapolis Museum of Art

California-based artist Tim Hawkinson is known for taking everyday materials and altering them in imaginative ways, creating works that address broad issues about the intersection of human consciousness, nature and technology. Here, he employed a mix of found objects and common household materials—including twist ties, craft wood, staples, and packing material—which he transformed almost alchemically into a complex and awe-inspiring sculpture.

Echoing the working methods of ship-in-a-bottle hobbyists, Hawkinson created a painstakingly detailed ten foot model ship that twists in upon itself, presenting the viewer with a thought-provoking visual conundrum. The title is a witty play on Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick”. The ambitious and imaginative structure of Hawkinson’s sculpture offers an uncanny visual metaphor for Melville’s epic tale, which is often considered the ultimate American novel.

“Möbius Ship” also humorously refers to the mathematical concept of the Möbius Strip. Named after a nineteenth-century astronomer and mathematician, the Möbius Strip is a surface that has only one side, and exists as a continuous curve. Its simple yet complex spatial configuration presents a visual puzzle that parallels Hawkinson’s transformation of the mundane materials into something unexpected.

James Doran-Webb

Dragons from the Woods: Sculptures by James Doran-Webb

James Doran-Webb, 46, is a Birmingham, England-based master craftsman. He has been all over the web for his breathtaking ‘galloping horse sculptures’ made from driftwood. James has been playing with wood since his childhood. However, it was since 2000s that he begun to explore various forms of nature. Now, he has appeared with two stunning dragon sculptures in his collection of life-size animal sculptures made from driftwood.

Perched on a dead tree sits ‘The Wyvern in the Baobabs’ – the first dragon. The ‘Wyvern’s Folly’ – the second dragon- is perched on a gazebo. The wings, nails, teeth, and gesture, everything is given extensive details. The gazebo is made from reclaimed steel and recycled water bottles.

Derek Weidman

Wood Sculptures by Derek Weidman

Derek Weidman was born in 1982, and has dedicated the last seven years to exploring lathe-based sculpture.  His approach involves multi-axis turning as the foundation of his work.  By using the unique shaping processes of turning, Derek has created a descriptive visual language that only the lathe can speak.  This carving process creates novel representations of a wide range of subjects, from those based on human anatomy to various animal forms.  Even with the most rigorous naturalism, an honest abstraction takes place. So from human heads to rhinos, mandrills to birds, each idea is being captured in a way it has not been expressed before.

Derek Weidman works in rural Southeastern Pennsylvania. From very early childhood Derek has drawn constantly.  He has a deep connection to nature, and his appreciation for wildlife has had a significant impact on his work. He also draws inspiration from astronomy, cosmology, ancient religions, as well as modern myths.

James McNabb, “Empty Kingdom”

James McNabb, “Empty Kingdom”, Scrap Wood Citiscapes

James McNabb‘s “City Series” is a collection of wood sculptures that represent a woodworker’s journey from the suburbs to the city. Each piece depicts the outsider’s perspective of the urban landscape. Made entirely of scrap wood, this work is an interpretation of making something out of nothing. Each piece is cut intuitively on a band saw. The result is a collection of architectural forms, each distinctly different from the next.

Henrique Oliveira

Henrique Oliveira, “Baitogogo”, Reclaimed Tapumes, 2013, Palais de Tokyo Museum, Paris, France

Designed by Henrique Oliveira to look like an impossibly tangled Gordian Knot, the Baitogogo sculpture was installed within an exhibition space at Palais de Tokyo as a mass of tree-like plywood branches.

The exhibition curators said “ Creating a spectacular and invasive Gordian Knot, Henrique Oliveira plays with Palais de Tokyo’s architecture, allowing a  work that combines the vegetal and the organic.”

The large installation was created from reclaimed tapumes – a plywood material traditionally used in Brazilian towns to construct the hoardings around construction sites. Oliveria collected the discarded tapumes from the streets of São Paulo, where he both lives and works. The veneer-like strips were bent into shape and nailed together to form the installation’s branches. Further wooden veneers were fixed to the structure to give it a bark-like texture and appearance.

Patrick Dougherty

Sculptures by Patrick Dougherty, Sapling Branches

In a career spanning four continents and three decades, internationally acclaimed environmental artist Patrick Dougherty has created over two hundred majestic sculptures out of nothing more than saplings.

“I think that part of my work’s allure is its impermanence, the life cycle that is built into the growth and decay of saplings. My focus has always been the process of building a work and allowing those who pass to enjoy the daily changes or drama of building a sculpture as well as the final product. However, the line between trash and treasure is thin, and the sculptures, like the sticks they are made from, begin to fade after two years.  Often the public imagines that a work of art should be made to last, but I believe that a sculpture, like a good flower bed, has its season.” – Patrick Dougherty

Senefu Bird Couple

Senefu Bird Couple, Ivory Coast, Africa

According to the Senufo belief, the Hornbull, along with the Tortoise , the crocodile, the chameleon and the sepent – was one of the first living creatures.  The long phallic beak touching its own swollen belly suggesting pregnancy, represents the dual forces of the male and female components, symbolizing the need for both to ensure the continuity of the whole community.  The image of this bird is taken from the native Yellow Casqued Hornbill bird, which the Senufo believe is the master of all arrogant birds and associated with intellectual power, significant of the knowledge the elders hope to impart on the you initiates.

Bakongo Nkondi Nail Fetish

Magical Objects: Africa: Congo Region: Bakongo Nkondi Nail Fetish

The various attempts to influence the fearsome powers of the supernatural through the mediation of statues or fetishes have acquired particular intensity in the regions round the mouth of the River Congo, home of the Kongo, Yombe and Vili tribes, and this is also the case in the east of Zaire, among the Songye.

Magical objects were for many years little known in Europe, as Christian missionaries working in Africa tracked them down and had them burnt. Certain statues which were brought back to Europe by religious men, allegedly for documentation, were kept in secret and could not be studied. They were much feared for they seemed, even to European eyes, to have real power, a belief almost universally accepted in 17th-century Europe. Olfert Dapper was the first to look dispassionately at these “fetish” objects and to dare to describe them.

Recent work has led to a better understanding. They are wooden carvings, either anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, which are covered with a variety of objects such as nails or metal blades. The cavities in their back or stomach contain “medicines” – grains, hairs, teeth or fingernails – which are held together with various binding materials. Pieces of fabric, feathers or lumps of clay are sometimes present. Finally, bits of mirror, shiny metal or shells are used to close the cavities or to mark the eyes.

Very often the faces alone are carved in detail, while the rest of the body – destined to be hidden under these various additional features – is sculpted more summarily. The figure’s genitals may even be missing, either because they have never been carved or because they have been removed by a zealous missionary.

Joseph Walsh

Furniture Designed by Joseph Walsh

Joseph Walsh (born in 1979) founded his studio and workshop in 1999 in Co. Cork, Ireland. He is a self-taught designer maker, realising one of a kind and limited edition pieces. Walsh’s creative approach reflects his appreciation of nature and also his desire to engage the user with visual and tactile forms.

The understanding and sympathetic use of the material; the intimate relationship between the process of finding forms and creating structures; the continuity and resolve from the concept to the making process, define Walsh’s studio and work today. He seeks inspiration in nature, in the patterns of growth and evolution – this has influenced his approach to design and process allowing the pieces to evolve and reveal themselves. Walsh’s workshop challenges and disrupts existing practice in achieving the ambitious pieces realised.

Michael Peterson

Wood Sculptures by Michael Peterson

Michael Peterson was born in 1952 Texas, US. Since 1986, he has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the US, including Revolution in Wood at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. in 2010, Craft Spoken Here at Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA in 2012 and a major solo exhibition Michael Peterson: Evolution/Revolution at the Bellevue Arts Museum in 2009. The artists work can also be found in many public collections throughout America, including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; as well as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

“The unity and simplicity of the sculptural forms he creates allows them to serve as compelling visual metaphors for the essential order and clarity desirable in a balanced life.”  – Michael W. Monroe, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Bellevue Arts Museum.