When your family, your business, your city, your province is built with wood, it seems like exactly what art should be made of in your community.
Blair Moffat never thought about wood as an art medium more intently than when he became captivated by the chainsaw carvers at this year's BC Northern Exhibition. The sawdust blew wildly and the roaring blades chewed out amazing images hidden inside large blocks of local log seen only by the artist until the engines ceased their gnawing.
Moffat did more than passively watch. He got involved. As one of the Moffats connected to the venerable Northern Hardware business, he knew a thing or two about chainsaws, wood finishes, and other implements of the carpentry trade. The carvers, led by Randy Gauthier, got a lot of volunteer help from Moffat that weekend, simply because Moffat appreciated the artistry and was fascinated by the process.
His enthusiasm wasn't isolated. Moffat soon found a group of like-minded appreciators who have been getting together on a regular basis ever since. The chainsaw carving was the basis for the continuing conversation, but all forms of art using wood was brought into their discussion.
The reason was clear to them all.
Local advertising executive Dan Dennis called the initiative "a celebration of wood."
"It's all about our local economy," said Valerie Giles, a local historian and writer and one of the first to join the effort. "When we think about art made from wood, that isn't a big item like a trainload of two-by-fours, but it stands for what wood can do. That means lumber, pulp, bioenergy, all the new technology wood is the centre of for products of the future, it all fuels our economy and it is what the modern community was built on. Art symbolizes all that wood means to us. It is hard to wrap your head around those big-business contributions of wood, but we can do this instead. We can use art as an indication of what all wood and people are capable of together. Wood is a public resource, it is an environmental imperative, it is a permanently sustainable industry and in the hands of talented artists it can be a celebration."
The artistic use of wood is as varied as the industrial options. It can be whittled by chainsaws or delicately carved by knives or even lasers. It can be painted upon like a canvas. It can be sculpted into realistic forms or abstract shapes. Wood turners can make magic with lathes. Carpenters can build almost anything the mind can imagine. It can be made into various forms of paper. Even the writing profession can make a claim on wood's artistic dexterity.
"What we really want to do is create a database. We want a list of artists who work with wood, in any ways, shape or form," said Moffat. "From this identification process we can then build a strong society to advocate for them. When we get a sense of all the kinds of wood-based art going on we can form our governance around that, so we can market these artists and make sure they have the resources they need, maybe we want to create a wood festival, and it is ultimately to put Prince George on the map for wood and art."
Moffat has seen that done before. Chetwynd and Hope have become notable for wood carvings, Chemainus for murals, Wells has a multidisciplinary artistic profile, and the list goes on.
Giles said this region's history of wood as an art medium, a tool, a foundational material goes back through time as far as human history can be traced. From the pit-houses to the drum frames to the canoes used by our original aboriginal cultures of the area right through to the engineering and forestry advancements going on via UNBC, wood holds local community together.
"It is the thing that defines our city, our economy still hinges on it whether people realize that out on the street or not, and it goes back in time as long as there have been people here. It really touches everyone," said Giles.
Anyone who works with wood in an artistic sense is asked to drop in to Northern Hardware (3rd Ave. and Brunswick Street) to sign a simple, confidential form explaining who you are and how you do your work. This group intends to be complementary, not competition, for any other arts group that's already involved in wood.
Information can also be obtained at The Northern about joining in on meetings of the working group that has assembled so far.
