It’s relatively rare these days to see Pueblo sculptures in this area carved from wood. With the exception of katsinam (kachinas), which, when created in the traditional fashion, are carved from a single piece of cottonwood root, most sculpture is rendered in stone. Common here are varieties of alabaster, sandstone, slate, and occasionally more exotic imports such as steatite and marble; for fetish carvers, a much wider array of stones are popular.
Don’t get me wrong: It’s not uncommon to see contemporary wood carvings of some beings, particularly of the Corn Maidens, especially in places like Hopi and Zuni. But I see a lot less of it elsewhere than even, say, ten years ago.
Once in a while, one of our carvers will return to wood as a medium. Such was not the case here, however: This is a piece that has been in Wings’s private collection for many years. It doesn’t qualify as “old” in the vintage sense, but it’s definitely a throwback to an older style, and it was carved by his cousin more than a decade ago.
I thought at first, based on its bright yellow color, that it was carved of piñon wood, but it’s not; it’s made of the local cedar. It’s deceptively simple in execution a rendering of a traditional elder wrapped in a blanket. the body almost entirely unadorned. The head, though, is another matter: face upturned toward the sun, features hewn in detailed relief, each lock of hair visible in the customary bun.
What I like most about this piece, though, is something that doesn’t come through in these photos. When you look at it front the front, it’s not perfectly vertical; the sculpture lists slightly to the right, following the line of the wood itself. It’s the old way of carving, coaxing innate form from the wood itself, rather than trying to impose a new shape on it from without. A naturally-occurring fissure or two in the wood add to the line and the sense of life. It respects the raw material, and in my own mind, leaves the piece that emerges truer to its inherent identity than if the wood’s own shape were destroyed utterly in the service of something else. It also gives each piece innate feeling, emotion, sensation: When I look at them, they appear to be swaying gently back and forth, as though they’re dancing.
You sometimes see a similar phenomenon among fetish carvers who use antler or shell (or even oddly-shaped pieces of stone) as media. To give you some idea of how iconic the curved spirit being, particular the Corn Maiden, has become in the artistic pantheon, you will now find Corn Maidens by contemporary fetish carvers that are deliberately shaped in that swaying stance.
Done well, the angle of the sculpture won’t affect its ability to stand upright. Skilled carvers know how to weight the carving, and how to attach it to a base in a manner that ensures that it will remain safely in position. This one has an unusually beautiful base, too: Alabaster in a delicately muted golden color, shot through with metallic flecks and subtle spidery matrices of ivory and gray and coppery red that reveal themselves only in certain lights.
From the piece’s description in the Other Artists: Sculpture Gallery here on the site:
This traditional sculpture by carver Paul Dancebow (Taos Pueblo) is done in classic Pueblo style. Carved of cedar, his upturned face is finely detailed, as is his long hair, tied back in traditional style. He’s wrapped in a blanket, and his body curves gently, following the natural line of the wood. He stands atop an alabaster base, golden in color with silver-white matrices throughout.
Cedar on alabaster base
$225 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
It’s a beautiful old piece, and one that could probably command much more on the open market. But it’s time for this elder to find his permanent home, where he can sing and dance in peace and comfort, knowing that he’s loved by his new family.
~ Aji
