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 met Gary over the
internet in the early part of last year, more moving
words of admiration and respect and comfort for
Roberta, whom Gary had so often mentioned to her.
Barbara recounted how she and Gary had become trusted
friends through frequent e-mails and an occasional
snail-mail and how she had received a woodburned
present from Gary sent as a token of appreciation. To
me he sent a Canadian Lynx quilt square, and 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 offered, 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.
