Tiwa Select is proud to announce its first show with artist Vince Skelly, showcasing works made from six different types of wood growing in Vince’s hometown of Claremont, California.
On Friday Jan 21, 2022, a severe wind storm hit Southern California, with gusts of over 83mph hitting Claremont, a small university town just outside of Los Angeles locally known as “The City of Trees.” During the six-hour event, over 300 trees were blown over. In both an effort to assist the city with the cleanup, and to preserve the legacy of the felled trees, Skelly drove around in the days following the storm and marked trees which had usable timber, which he gathered at his studio.
Skelly started carving wood in Portland OR, learning to sculpt with mostly local white oak and Western red cedar; the variety of new woods available to him after the storm—deodar cedar, pine, redwood, live oak, eucalyptus, and magnolia—presented an interesting learning opportunity for Vince to finesse his craft with new materials.
As with all objects that Skelly sculpts, the soul and patina of the living tree are encouraged to shine through—acknowledging the sad loss of the ancient structures, and allowing their new life as functional art.
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