Day One of the Competition

The competition was a amazingly well run and a pure pleasure. It started on Saturday May 31 with a free carving in the morning. Here's what I carved sans the flowers.




"The Bear" now resides at the Toei Chainsaw Art Club. Please visit.

Around noon the carvers gathered to hear inspirational words from the mayor and other dignitaries of the area. They were my kind of speeches short but meaningful. I was given a copy of the speeches written in English. The one line I like stated we were to do our best in this competition, bring all of our skills and try to surpass them in this competition. It was a rather serious part of the comp.









Saturday Afternoon we carved funtional item that was auction off to support the event. I carved a dove chair and Ross carved a Buddha Bear Bench. I have no picture of the chair but here's Squirrel's bench.



and here is a funtional item from a gentlemen named Goro who is a famous Japanese print maker and a truly wonderful dude. It is wearable...



So by the end of the carving Day on Saturday I had figured out a few things. One strange saws in a strange land are awkward and require special attention. Two Japanese cedar is softer than any wood I have ever carved and if you sneeze while cutting it you will over cut your mark. Three I really like having an anouncer saying my name while I carve(Did I just type that?) Four Japanese carvers are hungery for a good competition and good comeradery. And finally, Brian Ruth can eat more raw fish than any one (thus he was nicknamed "the walrus" by Ross) and can performance carver like a crazy man.

Saturday was Brian's 50th B-day. He entertained the crowd by carving a crane while the Toei Tyko drummers played. A lone flute started playing. Then the drummers started banging and the first saw started. There were chips flying and drummers drumming.





Then what is this!!!



I know it hard to see but that's a saw in each hand. After carving with two saws for atleast fifteen minutes, he complete's the heron with a cut between the upper and lower beak. He drops the saw and starts drumming. Crazy. Happy Fiftieth Brian.

Here are some photo's from the party that night. Goro, Ross and another carver.

Japan Ichiban

Whew. After a returning home sick on June 5th and being trounced by jet lag, and a weeks worth of inquiries I am back.

First my travel experience in Japan was amazing. The people, culture, and food were overwhelmingly charming. I wanted to stay forever.

I had the good fortune of traveling with and hope to do so again with Ross Olson or The Flying Squirrel. Squirrel is a crazy great carver known for is ability to carve intense and whimsical gestures. As well as being a level headed wild man. You must visit his Studio in Hackensack, MN just around 10 miles south of Walker, MN. He is a true artist and can turn wood in to all sorts of cool. Here he is in Chiba our first night in Japan. He actually looked like that that night a big schmear in between the lights.

This trip was an adventure from the inception. Both Ross and I felt drawn to go but intellectually it made no sense. We would be embarking on this trip during a highly productive time. Being from Minnesota we only get a few months to carve in nice weather. But it was spring and things seem as if they would be fine so we booked our tickets and just decided to go.

Oops. I somehow got confused and booked in to Narita airport and not Nagoya airport. So we ended up five hours away from Toei the town we would be competing in. I decided we could just take trains to Toei but luckily for us the Toei Chainsaw Art Club arranged a ride for us with the incredible Mr. Karita. Who as a side note just won 1st place at a competition in Chetwynd, BC, Canada. He also took 2nd in Toei. here he is with his piece.

Karita is an awesome carver, great driver and he was a especially good at filling us in on the many Japanese customs and social graces that Ross and I would never have figure out on our own. Karita Ichiban Subarashi.

So from Narita airport Ross and I were given directions on how to get to Chiba and an awaiting hotel room. I realized early as many first time international travelers do the reality of culture shock. I find it amusing. I love the ackwardness of misunderstanding. So I relished it when the young lady that was quizzing me at the immigration desk looked like she regretted letting me in to the country when I could not answer as to the address I was staying at in Japan. I only knew I would be in the green house in Toei, Japan. Later outside I found out Toei is the word for "far". I know I look like a nut and I am sure that confirmed it for her. Her report probably read shifty american going to far away Japan to a green house. She seriously shuttered as she let me pass and I just snickered.

So we took an hour train ride to Chiba and checked in to the hotel. Ate some sushi and crashed.

The next morning wide awake 4am Chiba, Flying Squirrel, crows, ravens, breakfast and public art in no particular order.















After we enjoyed our first Japanese breakfast of a hamburger in the most wonderful brown sauce with a lightly cooked egg(what comes before sunnyside up?) on top complete with rice, miso soup, and a salad the big question was "Does Mr. Karita know we have two big suitcases and 2 small suit cases and what size car does he drive?" Looking around at the vehicles on the streets of Chiba most cars would fit four people very uncomfortably without any luggage or carving gear. hmmmmmmmmmm...........

On site Commission #1

Here is a commission I created for an awesome women named Kay that lives in paradise on the Mississippi River in Inver Grove Heights. This was truly a pleasure to carve. I knew this was going to be a good one when I pulled up to discuss what she would like in her tree stump and Kay greeted me with a warm smile as a group of about twenty swans flew down the river. Breath taking and truly awe inspiring.

Plant Sale

Well it's been busy here this week I finished a commission on the Mississippi River in Inver Grove Heights and I have been working like mad on statuary for the Friends School Plant Sale. Here is a Preview of a few pieces available at the sale.












The Plant Sale is MAy 9,10,11. I will be there for sure May 9 & 10 but I am not sure about Sunday as it is half price day and I am not required to attend. I really hope you can make it I would love to see you.

Spring has arrived?

I think that spring is here now. A bit late if you ask me but I feel tempered and ready to truly appreciate the summer. This is a bud on our choke cherry bush exploding in the 65 degree weather. I wandered the yard this evening. After such a brutal winter I felt delirious looking at all the new buds on the trees and the plants popping out of the soil. (No it wasn't all the finishing I did today!) It is a mysterious time for me. I find it so engaging the unique shapes and colors that the plants produce. They change so rapidly and I just catch a glimpse here and there of the tiny little shoots. Pretty soon they will be fully developed leaves and sink in to the back ground. But right now I am captivated. A few months ago my Wife Desiree and I were commenting on how we can't look at the leafless trees by the end of March. We are so ready for the leaves to come in that the tree's become like static on TV. Try as we do we just can't focus on them any more. Any who here's our tamarack tree busting out it's new needles. Oh yeah.

Launching

I am pretty sure I started this life as an artist from birth . Though I was mostly unaware of it until recently. Yet there has always been a part of me devoted to creation. A sculptor actively expressing itself beyond my control.

My father turned me loose on some wood when I was younger and I made a series of airplanes from two boards nailed together like crosses. These are my earliest memories of the urge to create. I made five or six of them before I ran out of material. I think I was around three or four years old. The image of the plane and the joy of creation have remained as one of my strongest memories of early childhood. Thanks Dad.

As I grew older I spent time freely exploring the field and wooded area adjacent to my house. There in the woods I built monuments of sticks, vines and leaves. I made them for others to stumble upon. I imaged that amidst the organic chaos of the woods these creations would be discovered like ancient runes. I hoped they would illicit a reaction of pure wonder and inspiration. I think mostly they went unnoticed but I never held an attachment to the finished product just satisfied with the process. I even destroyed some myself as did others. This inspired me to make them subtler and less noticeable. As the creations blended into the environment more they lasted longer and could be enjoyed longer.

I remember a grouping of sticks tied together with a vine in a simple bundle that resembled wings. I had spent an hour throwing a rock with the vine tied to it trying to get in over a branch that was twenty feet up. After nearly being knocked out by the rocks return to earth I finally managed to get the vine over the limb. I pulled the angel up in to place, climbed up the tree a few feet and tied off the loose end with a ridiculous amount of wrapping and knotting. That sculpture lasted until the forest was cut down for a housing project. Some ten years later. Oddly coinciding with the event that pointed me in the direction toward realizing my career as an artist. Which I will eventually get to in this Blog.

For now I am launching this blog as a way to reach out. A way to leave that bit of sculpture in the woods and allow you to stumble upon it. I would love to hear your comments, related to what I am saying or whatever you would like to say. In fact, you can leave any thing you want here aside from the obscene and explicit. Please feel free to express yourself.

Thank you.

Curtis