Long story worth reading. “Invisible Forces” Art show buyers just love a good story. Here is mine.
This is a dogwood root ball. After digging this up, hosing it clean and trimming to fit on the lathe I turned it green. At this time it was a solid chunk of wood with the fissures and inclusions you would expect from a root ball, but solid. I turned the green solid root to size and shape. Then I hollowed it out. EZ PeeZee.
I left it on the lathe and went on vacation for two weeks. Upon returning I found what you see on my lathe. Parts I thought were all one piece of wood were not. As the bowl dried unforeseen forces did their work. The bowl shrank, warped, twisted and split apart. The two huge gaps you see in the front were separate roots that had fused as it grew. They shrank, twisted and fell out. They were lying in the bottom of the bowl. The checks also appeared all over the bowl, as seen.
DISASTER! (I thought) It’s ruined! I took it off the lathe and tossed it on the scrap pile to be burned. After all, It didn’t look anything like I wanted when I started. In about 3 months I was gathering cut offs for a campfire and I picked it up. Now I’m a woodturner who thinks he can fix any breaks or checks that happen during construction, but this? I set it on the shelf and left it there for about a year.
One day I was getting ready for an art show and needed an eye catcher to bring people into my booth. I picked this piece up and looked at it with a “different eye”. Interesting. BOOM! An epiphany. I cleaned it up. Saturated it with tongue oil. Let it cure and then I polished it.
This piece gets more looks and comments and praise than anything I do by myself. People love to here this story. I get many offers to buy it but it is not for sale. After all, how many artists have “Invisible Forces” as a collaborator?
