MAGINATION’S CREATION PROCESS – 02/05/2007

Posted on November 16, 2011 by admin

The maple burly log that was sculpted came from the town of Anacortes, WA. It was cut and brought to Darrington, WA., where I saw it and had it given to me by a friend who had cut it down and from there it was trucked back to Anacortes and brought over to Guemes Island where I then lived in the mid 90’s. The log laid on Guemes for about three years and was then trucked to Ellensburg, where I had moved. It was there in Ellensburg that the piece took form.
 
I had a studio at the old Dairygold Building and it was in the large back alley with a long overhanging roof that I set up the log and built a scaffold around it so that I could carve from the top down. It was a huge undertaking and consuming. The form started evolving from the wood. I had a small clay study to help locate where I would make major saw cuts. Because of the staging set up it was very difficult to IMAGINE the piece as it was evolving, but it took on it’s own magic and within weeks it emerged as the form that it is today. The entire process that is from the coming into possession of the log to the point of being a free standing monumental work of art was a Metamorphosis and an evolution in willingness, acceptance and love.
 
At this point the log sculpture had to be moved very carefully into a large work area under full cover. It was cradled and there upon I began the final sanding process. There was filling areas with pieces of burl and bark and grinding and sanding and filling with resins and epoxies and grinding and sanding some more. Then came the imbedding of the crystals. Incorporating crystals into my burl wood originals had been going on for some years at this point and it was the most natural move for me to include the large Indian Amethyst crystals that I had acquired. These became an integral part of the sculpture, bringing crystal energy from the Cosmos into planet Earth and that Gaian Knowingness of our connection. I too had been able to incorporate the fungus that had grown and hardened on the burl over the years of it lying on wet Guemes Island…they were beautiful!!!! They too added to the content of the work and it’s connection of earth, foliage and of other fungi that had Shamanistic qualities for our use. These I saturated with very thin super glue, they will be there forever!!!
 
The foliage came from the contours of the log itself and was instrumental in creating again the connection to life and living things growing heavenward…and hence into BIRD…the winged ONE that we relate to in so many ethereal ways. The dying came last…and like working with watercolors on paper I had to apply light colors first and go darker as I went. Only because I am a painter, am I able to do something like this. It is Sumi style, it is one shot, it goes on, it penetrates, and it is there!!!! The decision to go with yellows for brightness was evident. Then for this original it was important to keep the dark rich, primal qualities of the base and move into the greens of foliage. It had been planned from the beginning of the carving to have these flowing leaf forms sweep upward into the bird form and the two mingle and blend together to show once again the connectedness of all things. That is the reason too that I brought a sweep of green up into the bird chin area, as the negative space under the beak is the same shape as the leaf, there is coexistence and co creation going on.
 
That was it, it was a reality in ART and for me a monumental time not only in sculpting something this large, but the whole concept came from that period of my life….a monumental time period. I have always felt a deep connection with the heart of John Lennon and his song IMAGINE came to my mind and played on my cd player during the co creating of MAGINATION. I feel as if this is a dedicated piece for me to the person of John Lennon and the spirit of LOVE that he is about.
 
I trust this will help a viewer of MAGINATION to see at least in a small way what the sculpture means to me.
 
Leo E. Osborne~Ziam
 
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