Skip to main content

William Blake

William Blake:  Time is Eternity

2015, oiled black walnut    version #1,  12"x36"  collection of D. Hewitt



Woodgrain for me always seems so organic, so flowing.. it's as if you could compress time and make it act like water.  This chuck of walnut was that kind, where the text and the grain flowed together seamlessly, adding emphasis to the text of William Blake.  I've only used this text once before, for an anniversary piece that I'll discuss shortly.  This one, however, was a gift to a friend after the sudden loss of a spouse.  I hope it brought some measure of comfort, and will continue to do so over the years.


Time is Eternity, version #2
2013, oiled black walnut and lucite
15" high
collection of S. Staruch

 The other time I used the Blake text was for an anniversary gift.  After much discussion, I decided to break away from the 2D panel format and go with something 3D, something kinetic.  This is constructed from massive walnut triangles with lucite discs separating them.  It allows light to shine through (get it?), and allows each triangle to turn independently of the others (kind of trinitarian, I think..).  The Blake text is placed on the perimeter of each triangle, and I designed a logo for the couple with their first name initials (S & N) intertwined, carved into the top triangle.  Seemed like a nice anniversary touch..



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shelley: To a Skylark

  To a Skylark 2014 cherry,12"x84" collection of the artist, Anoka MN With deep gratitude to fellow choral singer and St. Olaf friend Eldri Wittkamper.. We just wanted to stop by and see the house where Eldri's relative lived, one of the Roe family who taught voice at St. Olaf.  We knocked on the door, and it turns out the house was occupied by the mayor of Northfield, who invited us in.   My jaw dropped when I saw it--the style was unmistakeable--it was a Flaten work surrounding the mantelpiece at the fireplace.  The text is a selection from Percy Bysshe Shelley, "To a Skylark": Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. Since we couldn't guarantee access to the house in the future, it was a stroke of luck that Eldri had a rubbing of the work, an exact copy.  From the rubbing, I was able to reproduce the carving exactly as Arnold did it.  I g...

Newborn Stars...

Newborn Stars 2013, 2014 walnut, 30"x60" collection Zion Lutheran Church, Hopkins MN I have gone through this process many times before--finding a text in a piece of choral music that is the source material for work in wood.  As a choral singer, it takes some time to learn new music--notes, intervals, phrasing, tempo--and then at some unexpected time, a phrase or verse hits like the proverbial ton of bricks.  Sometimes there are tears, often I just can't sing for a while when the profoundness of the text finally hits home.  This text is one of those.  It's a hymn text written by writer/theologian/musician Dr. Carl Daw, and the hymn is " As Newborn Stars Were Stirred to Song."  It was the perfect metaphor, especially the last verse-- the symbolism of the redeeming Christ set into musical terminology that just struck me... and a perfect choice to change the text into wood. An example of 'interchange', a favorite technique that I can onl...

Cloud of Witnesses

Cloud of Witnesses 2012 white birch, brass accents 30" x 72" Anoka, MN Commissioned for the newly designed chapel at Zion Lutheran Church, it uses the text from the book of Hebrews focusing on 'such a great cloud of witnesses..'  The piece is designed also to be removed from the wall and used as a freestanding panel in the main sanctuary for funerals, weddings, baptisms.. The text is in a modified Herculaneum font in kind of a run-on style, flowing around the candle stands all the way to the bottom of the panel.  There are 12 candle stands in all, each with a brass bar at the back as a visual accent and for added reflectivity when the candles are lit. White birch carves cleanly, and has a fine capacity for darkening the cut edges when varnished.  Contrast the golden finish here with the blonde unfinished panel in the picture below.. This is the stand prior to the final finish, using the walnut base in free standing mode. Since the chapel at Zi...