How John carved out his niche
The richness of the membership of Todmorden U3A, which now has members from the Todmorden and Hebden Royd areas, was once again evident at the August members' meeting with member John Adamson adding his name to the roll of those from among the ranks who have accepted the role of guest speaker and interested and entertained their fellows.
And entertain he did. How come this lot are so witty?
The talk was entitled "Chainsaw Carver". John, as the quick-witted reader will have surmised, is a wood sculptor and he brought some of his work to display.
All but one were modest in size, the sort of thing you can pick up and take home without the need to hire contractors, and had been carved from wood which had probably not been exposed to the roar of a chainsaw much after it had been felled.
The remaining one was a magnificent bust and was the one example of work resulting from the aforementioned technique.
John started by explaining that it's difficult to earn a living by woodcarving objects on the domestic scale that most people are familiar with. Mass production, cheap materials that imitate wood and objects produced cheaply in exotic locations make it almost impossible. Woodcarving as public art is virtually the only area in which he can earn a realistic return.
John went on to tell his audience that the only difference between the two kinds of work is one of scale. For the fine work, the same tools are used.
What is easier when working on a smaller scale, is that one can easily see the work from all angles, get the perspective needed and measure by eye. With larger objects, John photographs them and also has to scale up to get the correct proportions.
Many of his works are too high to use a chainsaw when standing on the ground, so John uses builders' pallets to stand on. He starts with the head, which may be bigger in proportion to the rest, like Michelangelo's David, as this is what the viewer will focus on and needs to be proportioned according to the situation in which it is displayed.
John sculpts in a way that invites his work to be viewed from all sides – there is no front and back – inspired by Henry Moore's dictum that a piece may be viewed from all point of the compass.
Examples of John's work can be found in Centre Vale Park in Todmorden and other sites in the North of England.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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