Background Story

The Early Years

The impetus to my becoming an artist was born out of sibling rivalry at the early age of seven... It happened when my sister had been one of the few in her class chosen by her teacher to attend Summer Art SchoolI

This "embossing" of a cat in copper was done at age 9 while at a summer church camp.  If there was a budding artist represented here it is not apparent. It remains my earliest surviving work of art.

was a mere seven years of age and she was just a year older than I.  I was jealous to the core when she would come home from her summer classes with her art projects.  It was explained to me I was not old enough to be in the class but it didn't help my feelings.  I was hurt that I couldn't go, and needless to say I spent much of that summer doing my own art projects so that I could compete for my parents praise. It must have been difficult times for my parents as well.This was but one of the many challenges thrown into my path, each of which served only to make me more determined in my direction.

  The adversity I encountered in becoming a visual artist throughout my life, has served me well in honing a competitive edge.  It takes a stubborn determination if one is ever to achieve creative excellence in any endeavor. But the perseverance required to produce a piece of art is perhaps no more cumulatively apparent than in visual art.  That is to say that in each piece of an artists work resides a composite of his life's struggle in achievement up to that point in time. Certainly there are no evidentual singular visual earmarks, but rather the artists life exists therein as a matrix of his history, subjugating every piece of art he produces.

The Middle Years

While doing undergraduate work at Central Michigan University I was faced with determining what my curriculum concentration would be. This was the sixties and minimalism and pop art was going full bore. I was inclined toward realism and surrealism at the time, but I could find no courses which allowed that direction.  Every course save one, drawing, seemed to have instructors who worshiped Andy Warhol, his infuluence was dominant everywhere. In the end I found it didn't matter what course you take, you take art offered by the instructor. Painting as a media, was as dominant in the art world as it is today.  Sculpture classes were near non-existent. It was impossible for me to schedule the few rare 3D courses available and graduate on time. So while 3D realism would have been my choice for a course of study, regretably, I decided I would have to prusue that later on my own.

Early Relief Woodcarving             Circa 1974 Look Familiar?   It could be that you have seen the above image somewhere before. In the early days of learning the carving process I used to use copyright free images.  This one was taken from an illustrators catalog.  I still recommend this method to beginners who have enough to worry about just in controlling the tools of the trade.

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It wasn't until some time later, while working on my masters degree at Wayne State University that I developed a love for working with wood.  This occurred during a printmaking class that required for one of the projects, a print from a woodcut.  I was immediately captivated by the forming process as well as the intricate textures I was able to create.  The print from the woodcut was disappointing  compared to the image made in the wood itself. From that time forward I was hooked on wood and the third dimension I was able to create with it.

A woodcut in essence is, of course, a relief carving, and relief carving was therefore the next logical progression to my growth as a sculptor. Subsequent carvings drove me deeper and deeper into the surface (high relief) and I used progressively thicker pieces of wood for each new carving until I was doing relief work that was much to heavy to hang on a wall. Again the next logical step was to make free standing sculpture.

Carving in the Round or "free standing" sculpture was a giant leap. Going from relief to free standing is sort of like jumping into the deep end of a pool after learning the swim strokes while laying on the floor. All of a sudden you have to match proportional integrity to a myriad of "points of view" instead of one.  There is no shortcut that I know of which will provide a person with the "visualization" necessary to accomplish this, when confronted with a solid block of wood or stone. The task of removing only the negative material thereby revealing the finished work can be a very overwhelming concept.  It is the single most challenging facet to the medium, and at the same time the most exciting.  I continue to struggle to be the master of this process and though I may be singularly ecstatic over my individual successes, in a broader sense I am never satisfied with what I might be able to accomplish as my life's work.  This is the force that drives me.

"In The Round" Carving Circa 1978   Perhaps not immediately evident in the above photo.  The sculpture is of a "lineman" in full regalia looking up at a utility pole he is about to climb. Why? This was a special order from a person who's father was retiring from the electric company. She wanted the transformer on the pole drilled out to accept a small candle and the lineman to be holding a match.

 TOOL WITH PROMISE-  THE CHAINSAW With he onset of the eighties came the expansive use of the chainsaw in my work. Though I had used a chainsaw for carving for the first time in 1974.  I never made more than three or four chainsaw carvings between then and 1979. Chainsaws of the seventies were generally large, cumbersome, heavy and underpowered for carving when compared to those you can buy today. For that reason I seldomj use one except when making the largest of sculptures.

That changed in 1979 when I was offered the commission to carve the Education Oak .  Located in Marshall, Michigan, this was perhaps Michigan's most historic, which had finally succumbed to age and died.  It was the honered tree where in the 1830's two notable men, Isaac Crary and John Pierce sat in the cool of it's shade, and founded the structure for Michigan's educational system. A system which ultimately led to the creation of Michigan State University as the nations first Land Grant College.  It was important to my development as an artist since by necessity it taught me that the chainsaw could be a valuable sculpture tool. I could not have accomplished this month long feat without it

At Right- Jerry Ward- me as I appeared then- Photo taken by local newspaper in 1979, as I was  working on the Education Oak in Marshall, Michigan.   At Left-  Working on the Education Oak. This commission was a turning point in my career as an Artist.  After this the chainsaw was a dominant tool in the growth of my ability to succeed as a Sculptor

Little did I know the chain of events that would transpire from this project, which would impact for better and worse the direction of my art for the next 15 years. But the following spring of 1980 found me found me jetting about North America carving for the chainsaw distributer whose saw I had been using for the carving of the Education Oak. It was a phenomenal oppertunity I conld not pass up. I worked in this capacity for three years carving at shindigs like county fairs and logging shows for the express purpose of showing off the saw to increase sales for the company.