At sometime in the ancient past large
native trees have died usually from old age, floods or earthquakes.
Over many years the softer parts have rotted away leaving the hard
gnarly, burly, knotty pieces lying on the forest floors.
This process probably happened before people populated and encroached
into the forests. At a time when extinct species roamed the forest
floors living peacefully within that environment pecking out a living
from insects and grubs in the natural carpet of compost.
In floods some of these old “souls” are washed into rivers where they
tumble and break up over the rocks, to be worn down by the water and
sand. They are often buried for years sometimes even hundreds of years.
In riverbanks and river beaches you can find these ancient remnants
and even today just look up any west coast rivers and see them emerging
out of banks, just under the surface in swamp areas or lying together
on the bottom of rivers.
Slowly over many years and many floods they tumble and get buried,
then uncovered, to continue tumbling and moving slowly down the Wild
West coast rivers toward the coast.
During this process most of the driftwood rots is eaten by insects,
smashes against rocks in floods and then lies in the bottom of rivers
with the flow of the current constantly washing over them.
When they finally make it down to the coast they often spend much
time lying at the bottom of the sea, homes for the fish, crabs and
sea lice. A lot rot away in the saltwater, but when the tides are
right, big seas or storms can bring some of these pieces to the surface
to be washed up and down the stony beaches of the shore line in a
natural tumbling action.
The sand and rocks act as natures sandpaper leaving only the knurliest
pieces to get thrown up above the high tide mark, to bake and bleach
in the sun, to get blasted by the winds and sands. This is often the
final destination for these ancient remnants.
This is when the carver comes along on his journey of discovery, searching
out the hardest and most unusually shaped pieces of these ancient
forests.
These are then carted back, often heavy and many kilometres from car
parks to be dried out in the workshop for their next process, which
is the human touch.
These pieces are often very hard, which makes carving a slow process,
with sand and rocks deep down in their crevices and cracks, blunting
tools quickly.
This is the exciting stage for the carver, for each tool cut uncovers
the rich colours and swirling grains of these ancient limbs, roots,
trunks, burls, and knots.
I carve just enough to reveal the beauty within trying to leave as
many natural surfaces as I can.
I am drawn towards faces and figures, animal and fish forms, which
encapsulates the history age and origin of each piece, hopefully the
spirit of the ancient forests lives on within the carving process
and is enhanced by tools and sandpaper, into a form so that we can
see the beauty and life force of these ancient and very special forests
of the past that have long gone.
Their long living children and grandchildren still populate small
communities and families around the heads of Banks Rivers and streams.
One day to do there own journey to the coast and sometimes beyond
in to pieces of art that contain this whole amazing story.
Woody Woodward
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