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CHAPTER 8

CARYING A COMMONPLACE OBJECT IN HIGH RELIEF

Finding Interest IN

THE ORDINARY

There is a natural tendency for us to look for beauty in certain contexts:    flowers,

landscapes, thc human face and figurę, animals. There is beauty to be found clsewhere, however, if only we look ac commonplacc objccts wich a kindlicr cyc.

In dealing wich the canring of foliage I have indicated that one is bound to simplify or dcvelop shapes, perhaps unconsciously. If someone takes, for instance, a squashed drinks can and enlarges it in another materiał we can see the shapes in it merely as shapes and forget about its formcr function and its present status as rubbish. What you make docs not have to be beautiful. A shape may be strong but disturbing; it may contain a powerful social, religious or political messagc. This chapter is concerned with looking at ordinary things, finding interest and perhaps pleasure in them, and transmitring your feclings about them in carved wood. To do this you do not need rarefied sensitivity but merely to observe closely and, where opportunity arises, draw attention to the most interesting shapes.

A Typical Subject: A Banana

A half-peeled banana is a good subjcct. We handle it often but seldom see it as other than food. It is difficult not to find good shape here. As with the leaves in Chaptcrs 5 and 6, draw several first to get an understanding of the form. When this banana was placed casually the shapes were good but it was possible to help the skin into a morę satisfying composition. Seen from above the forms looked scattered and so a slight adjustment was madę to the stem end until the banana fitted into an elliptical space. This adjustment is in no way false to the spirit of the banana. It still looks natural (Fig 8.1).