It’s hard to believe, but all of the sculptures you see below are made entirely of wood and then painted. The person responsible is artist and educator Tom Eckert, who uses traditional processes to carve, construct, laminate and paint his pieces.
Tom says his preferred woods are basswood, linden and limewood because they carve and paint well and are stable. His background is in painting and drawing, where his focus was on realism. His preferred paint is waterborne lacquer applied using both spray guns and brushes.
Throughout many of Eckert’s pieces you will notice forms carved to suggest cloth. Eckert explains:
“By tradition, cloth has been widely used to conceal and shroud objects in practices ranging from advertising to church rituals. Covered forms are often more evocative – with a sense of mystery absent from the uncovered object by itself… ‘Cloth‘ carved of wood has much different structural qualities than real cloth. When this idea is applied to my compositions (floating book, floating cards, floating rock) a sense of the impossible happens – for me, magic.”
Eckert received his M.F.A. degree from Arizona State University where he now teaches. His outstanding work has exhibited in over 150 national and international exhibitions since 1966 and was part of the Craft in America traveling exhibition.
To see the complete catalogue of his incredible artwork be sure to visit his official website at www.tomeckertart.com. There is also a video at the bottom of this post that provides a glimpse into Eckert’s process.
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An Interview with Master Wood Sculptor Tom Eckert
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