Cemetery Gate Opening

We had a wonderful turn out for the opening of the Cemetery Gate exhibit at The Clay Place Gallery this past Friday the 13th. Elvira Peake, Owner of The Clay Place, was a wonderful hostess providing us a venue for the exhibit. We had participation from many great artists from the area demonstrating the creative possibilities for considering our Urban trees for reuse within our community.
My thanks and gratitude to all the artists who participated in the event.








The exhibit will be running through the first week of April. So, if you haven't had the opportunity to stop in... there's still time.

Evaline and An Unfinished Love Story

Recently I finished a new piece, "Evaline" from S. Evaline st in the Garfield/ Friendship area of Pittsburgh near Penn Ave. This beautiful little table started out heading for the local dump when I happened upon her on my way back from Bartlett Fasteners on Penn Ave. You can view this moving little table full of life and the character of our city at the Fifteen minutes gallery in the Pittsburgh Tech Council lobby.

My other recent project "An unfinished Love Story" a heart shaped section of Goldstrom cherry from the Beechview section of the city, which I carved. The section split while I was working on it and it seemed only appropriate to leave it thus for the time being. This piece was given in an incomplete state...
My sincerest hope and dream is to have the opportunity to complete this piece sometime in the future... and the beautiful love story that accompanies this piece as well. We will have to wait and see for that one...

I am wrapping up work on a new mantle shown previously in the "Unearthed" show. I am pretty excited about how well this piece is responding to being worked. The grain being revealed is beautiful!
I will be showing this in The Clay Place Gallery starting next week... I better Hurry Up!!!! The show will be titled "Cemetery Gates" and we will have work from a number of local artists utilizing material from Allegheny Cemetery showing in the exhibit.
More on this upcoming show in the next couple days... so stay tuned!!

Peakes Peeks

A base for a local sculptor's work is a pleasure and an honor for Urban Tree Forge... as we are asked to help with and collaborate on a piece with Elvira Peake from The Clay Place. We went on a hunt for a selection of possibilities for our wonderful friend then roughed out a couple to choose from. Then it's on to "Baking Day" as we turn up the heat on any critters that may have taken up residency in our piece. Soon we hope to be showing at the Elan Fine Arts Gallery in Sewickley when we show together with more of our friends from the Society of Sculptors.
Keep an eye out for more progress as we develop this further....

everybody wants a log!

sycamore maple, sycamore oak...
Everybody wants a log!

Urban Tree Forge got to spend a couple days in Allegheny Cemetery this week working to recover some hardwood from our urban forest. We'd sure like to keep this material from becoming landfill.
Anybody need a table? A sculpture? A chair or a bed?
I also got some pieces for our sculptor friend Elvire Peake from The Clay Place to choose from for one of her sculptures... should become a nice collaborative effort and we'll be honored to be of assistance to such a wonderful Pittsburgh artist.
In addition I individually submitted some works for consideration for acceptance to the Craftmans Guild of Pittsburgh.... and as of Wednesday of this week... I Was Accepted!! Woooh!! Hooo!!