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Jerry Ward

Still Posting Wood Sculpture

Still Posting Wood Sculpture After All These Years

Artist in Wood ~ Jerry Ward ~
Artist in Wood ~ Jerry Ward ~

It’s not easy to be me. At any point in my life, I can honestly say I’d rather be creating my wood sculpture (Time spent with family and friends excluded). At least where work is concerned the work of creating something is like no other form of satisfaction. Still, my satisfaction depends on the rewards that come from selling it. Not so much the monetary rewards as the satisfaction that comes from the fact that people think enough of my art to buy it. To think that they take it home and give it a coveted spot in their home and display it for their enjoyment is for me a pleasure like no other. But to get it to people is a process, and that process is the most difficult to accomplish because it involves “exposure”. And that brings me to the crux of this post, and the fact I have spent the past three months getting my Website back online. A lot has changed since I built my first site back in 1994. Like EVERYTHING!! And because of a life transition, I have neglected it for almost ten years. Now there are many new ways to create sophisticated designs for more exciting ways to display graphics and therefore artwork, but they are far more difficult to construct and time-intensive to learn – and I’m not there yet. But at this point, as I come down to the spit and polish of the final stage of getting my site up to speed I have decided to go ahead and launch. I have come to the realization it will never be completely finished. It will no doubt be forever a work in progress so please bear with me through the times ahead. I am after all a “one-man-show”. And at any point, I’d rather be creating wood sculpture.

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In Progress – Sculpture Update

Jerry Ward Fourm1

On the immediate horizon is my only outdoor art show this year, Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff, in St. Joseph, MI.   I want to present for this show  very best of what I have to offer and therefore am working diligently to the purpose.  Faced with the challenge of producing at least five new works in the next six weeks has left me charged with enthusiasm and I find myself working late into the evening in fervor. and anticipation of what I might accomplish. The piece shown in the image here is titled “Fourm Factor” specifically to interplay with the words four, form and factor as the image itself does.  Form being the factor,  while four serves as the backdrop.  The shape embellishes on the four enhancing it’s value as an abstract form.  It all works together nicely as a package.  The reality of four dissolves, and the form becomes the only thing of value.  The subtleties of volume and shape come to the forefront in a residual way.

Making Fourm Factor

This piece is being carved from spaulted elm and the spault has created some magnificent nuanced changes in coloring to leave a complex underlying variance of tonal splendor.  In order to make this richness of tone show in the piece, I must first  painstakingly level all surfaces, removing bumps and shallows left over from the use of the more aggressive tools used in the development stages.  To do this I use a tool, shown here, known as a cabinet scraper.  Just a flat metal blade with a very sharp edge.  It works similar to a wood plane in removing wood in minute curly shavings. Using this in a crisscross manner, pulling it over the wood, produces the desired result.  A smooth level surface.  Wood never disappoints, it just keeps giving and giving.

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Back to the Future

Borrowing I bid from the movie title, this new revamping of my site I hope will have been worth it. I have been offline now for more than a month while my site was down. I was attempting to patch old technology with new and it just wasn’t working so I ripped my old site down (sounds violent eh) and will take the next couple of weeks to flesh things out. In the end I hope to have a site which will be fully responsive to viewing on all platforms. Please bear with me while I am reconstructing.

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