Friday, May 22, 2009

Wood you love to touch #4


I have always been interested in making art with wood. I love the texture and sheen of a well polished piece. It gives the impression that you can look into the wood's composition and it creates a strong urge to touch the surface. This is generally viewed as a no-no in galleries but there are some exceptions.


For several years I have had work in the Tohono Chul Park exhibit titled "Please Touch" which features art pieces with distinctive textural characteristics. The exhibit draws crowds of students from the near-by school for the blind. Each piece is labeled with Braille and a descriptive tape describing the art may be checked out for a tourer of the show. This exhibition has attracted significant attention around the state and beyond. The vessel shown above was one of my pieces shown this year. I uses segments of palo verde wood over a fiber-glass shell. Palo Verde is the state tree of Arizona.

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