I really liked the image of the Moose that he sent me, and decided it should grace the pages of this first issue. It is very much like the moose we see around my home town in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. It is also the same beast with which so many vehicles collide when travelling the highways of Norther Alberta. Very BAD to hit one of these creatures. They are tall enough that the hoods of most cars slide UNDER their legs, allowing the moose (plural = "meese") to drop onto the windshield of the car. Yikes!
In the forest it is a powerful, even beautiful beast (in an "ugly" sort of way), and a real survivor that is able to withstand harsh winters and predators. As such, it has become one of the symbols of northern Canada... huge, powerful, majestic, rugged (that's better than "ugly" isn't it?) and... uh... what the heck UUUGGGLLLYYY.
Arne tells me this carving is done in Silver Birch, which I assume is very much like the white birch I love for my relief carvings. Good choice, Arne! This jpeg illustrates how hard it is to judge the size of the carving from an image alone. For all we know, what looks to be a sculpture many feet tall might be only 12" tall. Maybe some day Arne will give us the answer ;-) Regardless of what Arne tells us about the size, I have arbitrarily given this carving a name. I call it "Morris the Moose". Not bad, eh?
Let Arne know what you think of his carving, OK?
And if there are any other great images of worthy carvings out there, which could grace the pages of future issues of the WWWoodc@rver, let me know, OK?
Bill Judt