Tag: wood

Jason Van Duyn

Jason Van Duyn, Van Duyn Woodwork: Wooden Cremation Urn

Van Duyn Woodwork in Edenton, North Carolina,  has been crafting wooden vessels, unrs, bowls and sculptures since 1949. The  cremation urns are handmade, turned primarily of various southern domestic hardwoods.  These hardwoods are sourced typically at the end of their life cycle; often the tree has died from disease, advanced age, storm damage, and pests. In many cases various interesting textures, tones, and patterns have developed as a result of those conditions. Each urn is sealed with a hand-threaded finial and is finished with Danish oil.

Their site is https://vanduynwoodwork.com

Source: browndresswithwhitedots

Collection: Wooden Masks of the World

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Collection of Wooden Masks of the World

Masks in various forms (sacred, practical, or playful) have played a crucial historical role in the development of understandings about “what it means to be human”, because they permit the imaginative experience of “what it is like” to be transformed into a different identity (or to affirm an existing social or spiritual identity). Not all cultures have known the use of masks, but most of them have.

J Mayer H

J Mayer H, “Metropol Parasol”, Wood Sculpture, Seville, Spain

The power of a wood structure is defined in a striking new edifice. A wood canopy of six “parasols” has been erected in Seville, Spain. Completed last month, it was designed by Berlin architect J. Mayer H., with timber construction by Finnforest-Merk GmbH, Aichach. “Metropol Parasol”, as it is formally known, is built of 3,400 wooden parts, is over 90 feet tall and almost 500 feet long.

The structure is made of  interlocking pieces of wood  held together mostly with glue and with metal clamps. Costing an estimated 130 million Euros and built over the course of five years, the structure is designed as an urban icon to draw attention to Seville, and reclaim an underutilized urban area. Restaurants and shops are embedded in the towers and below the canopy. A view walkway crowns the top. Architect Mayer designed it as an entry in a competition in 2004.

“The Metropol Parasol scheme with its impressive timber structures offers an archaeological museum, a farmers market, an elevated plaza, multiple bars and restaurants underneath and inside the parasols, as well as a panorama terrace on the very top of the parasols. Realized as one of the largest and most innovative bonded timber-constructions with a polyurethane coating, the parasols grow out of the archaeological excavation site into a contemporary landmark, defining a unique relationship between the historical and the contemporary city.” – J Mayer H

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.

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.