Autumn Reflections

We've had a busy late summer / early fall season bringing the community supported public sculpture project to events to inform and engage the public. Alvin demonstrated woodcarving on the project at the Driftless Area Art Fair and Gays Mills Applefest and we had a presence at the Kickapoo Country Fair in La Farge and the Viroqua Harvest Festival.
The borrowed trailer has been returned, and Alvin is settling in for a winter of work on the sculpture. We are still looking for another piece of wood for the second figure, so please contact us (sunmoon@mwt.net) if you have some ideas where we might find a four-foot diameter trunk or half log of bur or white oak that's been dead a few years.

Alvin writes:
"It's Thanksgiving season. Grateful I am for the interest and support of individuals in our community that are enabling this project. My personal thanks go out to you.
It's an appropriate time for a progress report. As the seasons change, I am now free to carve. The block is now standing secured to a timber base, surrounded by three levels of scaffolding. The figure is emerging, the silhouette of the sculpture and model agree. From here through various tools and techniques I will remove layers of wood like taking off layers of clothes until the form is obvious, balanced, expressive. Both figures need to be at this stage together before final refinements. I work with power tools and mallet and chisel. I intend final refinements and finish to be hand tooled. At this stage I alternate between power and hand tools. I have just purchased an electric chainsaw and have made great progress in a short time. Standing in the shadow of the sculpture at sunset after a day's work, looking up, I realize the sculpture is reality As So Above and Below. No longer an idea or a drawing, but a work in process, a community co-creation sculpture with meaning, purpose to inspire noble thoughts of gratitude and right relations. So may it be. I am inspired and anticipating a productive winter with your interest and support. - Alvin"