Ancient Celtic designs are a favorite with many artists, and pyrographic artists are among their biggest fans. Celtic art is intriguing and beautiful and the designs work beautifully with pyrography, even combined with other designs. In the Pyro Cafe Down Under as well as the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art are works in Celtic designs by many prominent pyros.
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Christmas Egg, View 1 |
American artist Sharon Garvey has officially declared that the egg came first, especially in this case, since no wood chicken has shown up to claim it.
That being said, let me introduce Sharon. I have known her since she was born (I won't say how many years ago). She is my younger sister who graduated in Fine Arts from Notre Dame and went on to get her master's and later teach at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Annapolis, Maryland.
Sharon has always had a penchant for working on unusual projects. For many years, she has painted a blown egg--usually, but not always, a chicken egg--as an Easter gift for our parents. The idea for this wood Christmas egg 'hatched' from a basic woodworking course that she and her husband Tim Wisecarver took together back in 1987. She had two wood eggs and decided to cut one in half lengthwise and the other widthwise to experiment with her new skills. The former became the diptych shown here in four views and a Christmas present for our mother that year.
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Christmas Egg, View 2 |
Sharon's outer design was inspired by a Celtic art design, which she adapted to the egg shape and to which she added some details of her own, such as the little trompe l'oeil keyhole and the pyroengraved dedication to the recipient. Much of the coloring was done with permanent markers.
The diptych design on the inside of the egg came from two sources of inspiration: the Madonna and Child from an 11th Century ivory carving and the Nativity scene from a 15th Century illumination (probably German). The background on the Madonna and Child side Sharon executed in a dotted pyrotexture.
The egg shown here is one of only two woodburned ones that Sharon has
done. Of the many eggs she has painted for Easter and a few she did on
commission for clients, she has done other Celtic designs, one of which
was an eagle, the symbol for St. John the Evangelist, and another of
which was a design from the Book of Kells.
Another Celtic egg by Sharon met an untimely end. It was a hollow
chicken egg, painted in a motif taken from a Celtic manuscript
illustration showing Christ being led away by soldiers. The fragile
egg, sent to a friend as an Easter present, survived being mailed from
Mexico to Ireland quite nicely. The recipient, a student, wanting to
protect it, repacked it in its original box. While he was away from
the house, the cleaning woman where he lived with an Irish family,
hefted the box, thought it empty, and threw it away.
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Christmas Egg, View 3 |
Besides eggs, Sharon sculpts pumpkins in layers creating elaborate
designs that seem to leap out at you from the pumpkin. Sharon undertook
many of these unusual jack-o'-lanterns and eventually started doing an
annual show of these and selling art photographs she herself took of
them. She kept this up for seven years showing at a gallery in Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia where she was living at the time. Her pumpkin
sculptures were featured in a beautifully done television segment aired
in Washington DC on Studio Nine with Maureen Bunyan some years back.
I asked Sharon whether she thought jack-o'-lanterns were a type of pyro
art since the fire that lights them is really an integral part of the
art work. Although she believes that the early jack-o'-lanterns made
from turnips (in Scotland) and pumpkins (in the New World) were really
pyro art works, her own, she says, evolved from those. Moreover,
because the candle flames so quickly dried out the inside of the
pumpkins she sculpted, she began substituting electric lights so that
they would last longer. Her art photographs of the jack-o'-lanterns
make use of the lit pumpkin as well as external lights for the various
effects she gets that differ from viewing the jack-o'-lantern itself.
She also likes to photograph the pumpkin sculpture as it deteriorates to
record the metamorphosis.
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Christmas Egg, View 4 |
Celtic designs have been prominent in Sharon's pumpkin sculpture as
well. One of her favorites was a St. John from the Book of Kells. The
haunting Celtic face made a striking lit sculpture and likewise a
striking photograph series done in various lighting effects lit from the
outside as well.
On Halloween, she still likes to carve a traditional jack-o'-lantern for
the children and light it with a candle.
For the time being, Sharon is occupied with other things in her
life, but she plans in the not too distant future to put together a
coffee table book primarily of her pumpkin sculpture. She has put a lot
of time into researching the American Civil War because of an ancestral
diary passed down in her husband's family and would also like to see
that story turned into a book. Also envisioned is another
book--somewhere between a children's book and an adult book--about a
mischievous clown with a peculiar sense of humor, but that's another story....
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English artist
Dave Hicks of Birmingham
describes himself as "a driven man." "I can't sit
still for five minutes," he says. "I love to create."
Dave is very much a multimedia artist. He's been painting and sculpting
for 15 years and even those media came after his very first love, which
was photography. He also likes earthenware pots that he fires in a
kiln. He got started in pyrography, however, only a few years ago when
he started working on some humidors for which this medium seemed the
perfect choice.
Why does Dave continue in the pyrographic medium over other media he
might use? Actually, as it turns out, he does everything at once!
Apparently, he likes to be 'up to his elbows' in projects at all times.
Among other things, at juried shows for the last year and a half he has
been showing some pyroengraved panels in a Celtic design.
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Celtic Decoration on Ukelele, and Detail
by Dave Hicks, 2000
Pyrographic and carved decoration of Celtic
motifs on wood ukelele
Celtic pyrography was the first pyrography Dave did. He loves the
Celtic designs as so many of us pyros and other artists do. He
particularly likes, too, that he can build his own designs within the
Celtic format. Dave is "not the measuring type;" however, for
his very intricate Celtic patterns, he works them out in two or three
plots by hand. He notes that mechanical means are frowned on for
working in fine art.
When working on a project in any of the various media he so enjoys, Dave
always attempts to bring out the quality of the material he is using.
In the case of his pyroengraved work, Dave likes to work in a heavy burn
to bring out the quality of the medium itself and contrast it with the
beauty of the wood he is simultaneously working to showcase with his
design and finish.
Church commissions are an important source for Dave's opportunities in pyrography; an example of one such commission is the striking Celtic plaque shown above to commemorate a church festival. Not only did he work the plaque in the ancient medium of pyrography, Dave added a very traditional coloring--egg tempera (a mixture of pigment, yolk, and water) as the medium of choice to enhance the pyroengraving, because of its vibrant colors.
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Like using wax paints on marble statues, Dave likes the versatility of pyrography because of its characteristic of isolation, meaning the way the paints are separated one from another and that pyrography likewise puts a burned line of separation between colors. He has been trying his hand at pyrography on paper as well and likens the effect to silverpoint. He says that he has seen other pyros on the IAPA message board trying out pyrography on plastic, so he is planning on going there soon, too. He noted that pyrography can be used much like wood engraving and woodcuts to do printing and he wants to experiment using pyrography to get an intaglio effect for printing, too. He thinks he could pyroengrave plastic instead of wood for this purpose and that afterwards he could ink up the plastic, then rub it off, and that it would be similar to drypoint.
Dave Hicks is a modern day champion of both the ancient medium of pyrography and the ancient Celtic art tradition. A Celtic theme greets every visitor to the very handsome Dave Hicks Website, which from the homepage starts with a Dave Hicks emblem bearing a Celtic knot to enter and an image of pyroengraved Celtic borders after that. A sampling of Dave's artworks will be on display soon in the Dave Hicks E-Museum Salon in the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art.
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Gary Eckelberry with Grandson Steven |
Although the international Association of Pyrographic Artists (IAPA) is
still a fledgling group of more or less 100 members (or perhaps BECAUSE
it is such a small group), it has become a close community of friends
joyfully sharing a common interest while simultaneously offering moral
support in good times and bad, as friends do.
It was inevitable that one day, among all the advice, chatter, and good
news about new artworks, new shows and classes, or prizes won, bad news
would come. It turned out sadly to be the passing of one of our
members, Gary Eckelberry of Cheney, Washington, who died of a heart
attack on 16 December 2000.
Thanks to Barbara Cramer, Gary first became known to me at the end of
May 2000, and immediately joined the IAPA members on site at eGroups at
the beginning of June after our introductions.
Gary was a very active participant in the IAPA group. His widow
Roberta, who came on line on Gary's own e-mail to give us the sad news a
couple of weeks after Gary's death, comforted all of us by telling us
how much the group had meant to Gary and how much he was enjoying his
very active participation in it, including in the popular quilt square
project, right up to the moment of his death.
At the time Gary joined IAPA, my special feature article on pyrography
as a healing art had just been published. Gary read that article and
told me afterwards how he had gotten into woodcarving while looking for
a meaningful hobby as therapy when he began his recovery program in May
of 1998. At a Spokane woodcarving show later that year he discovered
pyrography and bought a tool, wood, and a book written by a lady who was
at the show selling her book and her woodburnings. He emphasized how
much his woodburning had helped him and kept him going during his
ongoing recovery.
Little did he know then or even at the time he wrote me in May 2000 that
by October of 2000, he would be ecstatic to learn that at that same show
in Spokane he would win a blue ribbon on one of his pieces and a red on
another, then go on to win Best in Novice and Best in Division. His
friend, who had been present during the judging, told him that he had
come "within a hair of winning Best in Show"!
Just as Gary received a warm welcome when he arrived on the IAPA list at
eGroups, he now received heartfelt congratulations. Such a short time
later, he posthumously would receive heartfelt eulogies from people like
Peg Wood who was the one to write the group and tell us about Gary's
prizes because he was too shy to do so himself. A widow herself, upon
news of his passing, sent comforting words to Roberta. Sue Walters
wrote to tell Roberta and the IAPA group "in testament to his
generosity and friendship" how Gary had gone to great lengths to
get her some special wood and had sent it to her all the way to
Australia. He was never to see the present she had sent him in
gratitude for his kindness. From Kitten came a virtual sympathy card
with a poem, and from Barbara Cramer, who had actually met Gary in
person, more moving words of admiration and respect and comfort for
Roberta, whom Gary had so often mentioned to her. Barbara had received
a woodburned present from Gary sent as a token of appreciation, and I
had received a Canadian Lynx quilt square from him. He even
thoughtfully wrote before sending it and asked me to choose which one I
wanted from his on-line photo album. David Wickenden wrote of the
support and honest criticism Gary had sent, and started another quilt
project in Gary's honor. More tributes came from Miriam Cole, Connie,
and Dave Hicks. By the time I called Roberta, she told me she had
received over 200 e-mails from our group. She was noticeably moved by
the group's response and so glad, too, that she was surrounded with so
many pieces done by Gary that now comfort her.
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Chief Joseph |
This link will take you to an on-line photo album of Gary
Eckelberry, displaying pictures of Gary, his widow and family, his
pyrographic art work, and more.
We knew him for only half of a
year, yet he touched us all and will remain in our memory.
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The AuthorKathleen M. Garvey Menéndez learned her pyrography techniques in Guatemala in 1975-1977. Her sister, Artist Sharon H. Garvey, later joined her there to collaborate on a pyrography project designed to promote this art form in the United States by means of a didactic book and a pyrography tool made by Navarro of Mexico.Thanks to the internet, January 2001 marked the beginning of the fifth year of articles on pyrography for the Woodcarver Online Magazine, started January 1997, and the fourth year of the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art, which opened January 1998. In March of that year, the International Association of Pyrographic Artists (IAPA) was formed and members began meeting on line. Linked from the E-Museum's Café Flambé, which hosts the IAPA meetings, is the eGroups uniting_pyrographers mailing list, member list, and chat forum set up by IAPA Director Mixo Sydenham of Australia for IAPA members. |
© 2001 Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
