John Adamson- Tree Sculptor

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Hide and Seek

The Friends of Thompson Park, Burnley asked me to do something with a hollow tree stump that stood where five footpaths meet by the children's play area. It was 5 foot 6 inches high, 3 foot in diameter but with only about 9 inches good wood round the edge. It was not a smooth trunk and had columns of wood rising from the root system that combined into 5 main columns part way up. It seemed that the main columns would become the bodies of five children and the lower subsidiary ones become their legs. They are all playing Hide and Seek with the one child who was 'on' covering one eye with a hand but peeking out over the hand. That is the way I always played the game. The other 4 children are just going off to hide.

After removing the bark and rot, I found that it was not quite as easy as that. There was not enough good wood for everyone to have two arms and all of the heads to be incomplete. Some of the troughs between the columns were very deep and not at all helpful. Some hard decisions had to be made. The lack of all arms was not really a problem as the viewer could be lead to assume that the other arm was in the centre of the sculpture. The loss of half a head was more of a problem and I just had to carve the solid wood as if there enough of it to make a whole head and hope that the viewers imagination would fill in the missing space. Part way through the work, I could see that what I was making was going to be a maintenance nightmare. It would be a hollow tube with holes cut through at the base, and an ideal chimney with a fireplace. It was agreed that the hollow inside should be filled with concrete to remove the temptation.

Most of the work is done with a chain saw. This can be a surprisingly sensitive cutting tool that can almost be bent round to cut the shape required. For the hands and faces a large broad and shallow gouge and a mallet will be used. A chain saw is too big for this sort of delicate work and the surface texture produced by the hand tools will contrast with the chain saw cut and emphasise the difference between the clothing and flesh.

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