BillsBayou
Chumono
As soon as the blade touches the wood, the artist is tasked with removing evidence of the blade.
Vehemens caelatura, Latin for "carved violence", is my philosophy that brief moments of violence in nature are best represented by brief moments of violence. Natural fissures and fibers within the tree will direct the carving, not the artist's skill.
Storms can break or shatter the tops of trees through high winds or lightning strikes. Residents of the Gulf Coast of the United States have witnessed these breaks either in the moment it happens or during post-storm clean-up. The first is quite frightening and the second is awe-inspiring. I've looked at these trees and I've looked at attempts by bonsai artists to replicate these events through carving. Some artist are quite good at this sort of carving. A few artists even use the natural fibers of the trees to closely represent the natural paths of damage in the grain of the wood.
All of this takes time. Yet the trees we see in nature were shattered in a very short moment of intense violence. No matter how fast we carve, we cannot replicate the effects that can be seen when nature strikes a tree.
This leads me to the question: How can we apply intense violence in the least amount of time?
Steam-powered pile driver?
A game of dynamite hot-potato?
John Henry's hammer?
Ask the University of Florida for a little rocked-triggered lightning at Camp Blanding?
Entry into the Scottish Highland Games caber toss?
Play the roll of Snidely Whiplash lashing Nell Fenwick to the tracks?
Stand atop the Hill Valley clock tower awaiting delivery of 1.21 gigawatts?
Ford F-150 Jousting? (a personal favorite)
Termite wearing a backpack nuke?
The answer, dear reader, I will leave as a homework assignment.
In the meanwhile, here's a bald cypress which will suffer my chisels. The black at the top came about from the two times my cheap table collapsed spilling soil everywhere. The center column of heartwood will be hollowed out over time.
And here's a termite wearing a backpack nuke:
Vehemens caelatura, Latin for "carved violence", is my philosophy that brief moments of violence in nature are best represented by brief moments of violence. Natural fissures and fibers within the tree will direct the carving, not the artist's skill.
Storms can break or shatter the tops of trees through high winds or lightning strikes. Residents of the Gulf Coast of the United States have witnessed these breaks either in the moment it happens or during post-storm clean-up. The first is quite frightening and the second is awe-inspiring. I've looked at these trees and I've looked at attempts by bonsai artists to replicate these events through carving. Some artist are quite good at this sort of carving. A few artists even use the natural fibers of the trees to closely represent the natural paths of damage in the grain of the wood.
All of this takes time. Yet the trees we see in nature were shattered in a very short moment of intense violence. No matter how fast we carve, we cannot replicate the effects that can be seen when nature strikes a tree.
This leads me to the question: How can we apply intense violence in the least amount of time?
Steam-powered pile driver?
A game of dynamite hot-potato?
John Henry's hammer?
Ask the University of Florida for a little rocked-triggered lightning at Camp Blanding?
Entry into the Scottish Highland Games caber toss?
Play the roll of Snidely Whiplash lashing Nell Fenwick to the tracks?
Stand atop the Hill Valley clock tower awaiting delivery of 1.21 gigawatts?
Ford F-150 Jousting? (a personal favorite)
Termite wearing a backpack nuke?
The answer, dear reader, I will leave as a homework assignment.
In the meanwhile, here's a bald cypress which will suffer my chisels. The black at the top came about from the two times my cheap table collapsed spilling soil everywhere. The center column of heartwood will be hollowed out over time.
And here's a termite wearing a backpack nuke:
