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I’ve learned alot about baroque carving making this chair. Yes, yes, I know this is a Rococo carving and Rococo is different from Baroque. But I yes, it’s the baroque aspects of the design that I plugged into.
I could write a lot about my experience carving; the tools, the stones I shaped to sharpen the tools, the “flattening” that naturally occurs when one copies a copy, that copied a copy of a photograph.
I don’t consider this carving wholly successful. And the project as a whole is a nightmare. But I think I get the relationship between this style and the baroque; the contrast of light and dark, near and far.
I also imagined a scene that I’m sure I saw in some Jane Austen movie that really helped with the Rococo aspects of the design. It’s a windswept hill top. A portion of a classical column has been over grown with vines. Ladies enjoying a picnic have placed wild flowers tied up with ribbons atop the column. It’s rustic, classical, and natural all on top of each other, intertwined physically and metaphorically.
Can I just add that I hate this kind of talk. And I typically hate woodworkers who engage in such talk. They rarely know what they are talking about. It’s sales speak used to exhalt one’s self or work or both. But it rarely has the desired effect.
Yes, I’ve learned alot carving this chair. Lesson #3026: Be careful about your rhetoric Adam. And don’t be so darned judgemental.
Because in this case, I think this sort of mental imagery is essential. Whether my work is good or not is regardless. This is artwork. It requires that we use our imaginations and link up our hearts, eyes, and hands (yeeck- this is so hard for me. See what I do for you?).
Copy too much, and your artwork will lose it’s “life”. These carvings have to be bold and exhuberant. This is the second leg. It’s not just like the first. And it’s not just like the original. It’s like a column, on a windswept hill…. and no kidding. I wish there was another way around it guys.
Adam
Fight if you must, and don’t let the wife see the box of tissues, but for the good of your work, you might need to get Emma (Kate Beckinsale version is better imho than Gwenyth), Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson), or Pride and Prejudice (get 6 hour A&E version) from Netflix. This may be what you need to progress. So important are these films, I hear Megan is considering having them as required viewing at Woodworking In America: Chicago!
