WOOD SCULPTURE BY PAUL BOECHER

I often post paintings by my artist husband, Paul.  He dabbles in all sorts of art and is now one of the teaching artists at a local art center in our community.  Art is something that’s inhabited his mind, body and soul for most of his life.  It started at a young age, when he received a failing grade in art.  He didn’t follow the example provided all the students.  Instead he went his own way and suffered the consequences.  That experience didn’t discourage him.  He has a passion for all sorts of art.

The piece I’m featuring today is called, “A Little More Off the Top.”  This was carved with hand chisels and then painted over with acrylic paint.  I guess you could call it a totem, because it’s a pole that tells a story.  There was a marketing tactic connected to this piece.  He actually carved it in a barber shop as people were coming and going and getting their hair cut.  The event was publicized and there was an actual show as he worked, but the piece never sold.  Instead it occupies a corner outside of our garage. I’m secretly glad that it didn’t sell.  I can look at it from the kitchen window and chuckle every time I see it.

Paul was an ardent sculptor even in high school.  While all the other students were making small pieces out of plaster, he was grinding away on a piece of limestone in his own little corner of the classroom.  The result was a ram’s head.  This piece of art is also part of our outdoor decor.

It amazes me how he can take a blank canvas and create something from nothing, but it’s even more exciting to  see a piece of stone or wood come to life with hammer and chisel.  Like any form of art – music, painting, drama, dance – we see the creation of that art, the process and the result.  We can do a bit of that with our talents, enriching another person’s experience with it.  Imagine how God felt when he finished each part of our creation and said, “It is Good.”