Around wood
Wood as matter | The living and intimate matter | Working with wood | It brings an intense satisfaction | When do my work ends ?
It was on my own ; during the years 1975-1980 that I learned about wood and how to work with it. My first sculpture made out of an old oak beam dates back from 1980.
It is in a way the accumulation of art pieces that made me a sculptor, deeply, slowly, step by step, my first real exhibition waited more than 15 years. After that things went faster. Once it is cut, the trunk keeps a strong inner tension. When it dries, this tension creates cracks going from the outer part to the heart of the tree. I’ve noticed , as years went by, that this drying stage (loss of humidity) was essential, up to the point of making an experiment in the year 2000 with the trunk of a poplar tree cut just 100days before I started working on it.
This type of wood is famous for being filled with water and therefore not really used for sculptures. So I went for a lot of « clearance » ad cuttings through the heart on its full height, about 2m50.
My concern was indirectly to organize, to balance the drying stage. The heart looses its volume very slowly whereas the surface on contract with air dries very fast.
The result of this experiment is actually striking : after five years, no major or secondary cracks. On the other hand I have been keeping beautiful oak pieces for the past 20 years they are really hard, very difficult to work with and they have wide open cracks !
Some kind of training might have avoided the mistakes and the time lost but I wonder if the fact that I had to understand, « …, feel the wood was not fundamental. Anyway, even with some failures, the self tought artist has better chances to keep his singularity.
Indeed, I think that a kind of taste for danger, a personal sensibility survives better when it stays outside of a knowledge which is to established to « educationalized ». in any case I appreciate the way things evolved until today and if I find myself in situations of transmittings my knowledge I won’t forget it.
The matter of the living and the intimate
Wood is the matter of the living and the intimate. After sanding down, the contract with wood is sensual, carmal. Especially with woods having very densed fibers like fruit trees. A real contact between two skins ! even in museums under close surveillance we sometimes see people stealthily putting their hands out to touch, to feel wood. I think that this is part of wood carving and I let people touch, I even encourage the touching/caressing aspect.
This skin is a fascinating border between « inside/outside » which links together and signs.
This sensuality is one of the qualities of wood which makes it close to man, with its growth marked by annual rings, its numerous shapes, its capability of catching light, but also its scars, ruptures, its wrinkles and its roots.
It doesn’t prevent wood from being a little bit out of date, a little bit like an old dream that became a stronger, except in exhibitions !… and eco-friendly houses ».
Wood carving is really interactive. There is « here » in front of the sculptor a compact mass, with its shape, its matter, its colour, its scent and its winks.
I started by choosing a trunk that suits me that I can « undertake », by turning aroung it many times, several days eventually.
It is a wink that starts it all : for example a tiny knot which is at the beginning of a shape in a trunk over 2m heigh. Or a little curve more visible than others which attracts me or carries me towards an a…mated volume these winks are for me little details (a knot, a line, a hole, a shape) which provoke, makes you forsee or dream.
With this « wink » I start from a dominant visual angle but the sculptor reintroduces whenever he can the requirement of the 360°.
A singer sculpture can become two or three only because of its shape or the movement that’s around it.
To let the eye go from one sculpture to another without undermining the strength of each one of them is indeed demanding and brings a lot of pleasure. It is a way to talk about our secrets that we need to discover keeping in mind everything. This 360° work needs a slow and careful progression through stages of shapes. With each hesitation one needs to stop the time necessary : 5mn, 1 hour, 1 days or month. With wood the « clearings » are fatal. No « repentance » like painters say. In that way and to accept the idea of interruption I took the habit of working 4 or 5 sculptures at a time.
In the moring :
This moment of contemplation / observation dedicated to each sculpture in progress, turning around it I really love of course.
I often think about sculptures according to areas I know (houses, appartments, buildings).
A sculpture lives even better in an specific location since the echo of its shape and olours easily asserts itself. I really have the chance to verify my « imaginary choices » and I regret it.
I am conviced that some places would literally be transformed, magnified by some sculptures. A sculpture brings life by giving to the movement, to the light and to the eyes a power to transform. But that’s the artist’s dream in an era that is finally not really turned towards art despite all the investments done in cultural communication.
I cannot end here without talking about my tools, the way the sculptures are « finished off » and try to answer the question : « when do I stop working on a sculpture ? ». I’ll also talk about my views on the choice : « abstract / figurative ».
The chainsaw (electric) is an irreplaceable means to « rough out « wood and spare one’s energy.
Chisels, gouges or any other type of blade play then the supporting roles. They « slim down » and finish the shapes (50cm blade for plane machines, planes, cutters, sanders…) It often happened that I had to create a tool specially made to reach certain areas hard to go to.
My work ends on its own, when my eye feels that « everything holds together », all of its shapes and lines, holes and details fit together in a strong but mysterious way. Turning around it the eye follows a real satisfaction rarely put into the question a few years after.
I often add colours to give more depth to the shapes and shadows. I always start with the original wood colour and reinforced it if needed. I shook up shapes with contrasting colours only a few times.
On the other hand I made a significant experiment with colours as a means of « transmutation ».
Wood as matter | The living and intimate matter | Working with wood | It brings an intense satisfaction | When do my work ends ?
