Finding
the soul in the tree
By Pirjo Raits
© Sooke News Mirror
May 14, 2008 |
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Burls,
or burs as the British spell it, are highly sought after and
prized by woodworkers, furniture makers, sculptors and artists.
Burls
yield highly-figured, difficult-to-work-with wood, but the
beauty of the end result becomes infectious.
Phoebe
Dunbar grew up close to the water and her father carved toys
from found wood along the beach. An avid paddler, Dunbar has
spent the last two decades exploring the coast by land and
water. On those trips, because her twin sister Mary Gazetas
wrote and sketched, Phoebe turned to carving.
“Mary
was the writer, and the one who did the sketches in her journals.
I could not be a writer — I had to carve! As twins we
needed our own identities,” says Dunbar of her start
into carving.
She
has always appreciated art and the esthetic. The artist’s
eye following the curve of an amazing piece of driftwood,
the beautiful grain discovered in burls, the organic feel
of smoothly sanded shapes.
Dunbar
started carving large pieces just a few years ago and the
passion of what she loves shows through in the silky, wonderfully
eccentric wooden bowls, plates and pieces of furniture fashioned
from nature’s oddity — the burl. The most useful
burls for woodcarvers are the ancient ones found in the old-growth
forests. These open themselves up to reveal treasure —
treasure Dunbar unlocks from the deformed wood. These odd
tree growths yield flames, tiger strips, swirls, eyes and
spots hidden from view until the artist’s tools reveal
them to the outside world.
Once
her passion had been unlocked, Dunbar went full bore and has
had her wood art showcased at the Sooke Fine Arts Show, Island
Wood Works on Salt Spring Island, Little Vienna Balery and
the Sooke Harbour House. She has a wood working studio and
welcome visitors. Her website is at: www.phoebewood.com.
Dunbar
has an exhibition of her latest work at the Little Vienna
Bakery during the month of May. It is a handsome show, warm
and touchable.
Little
Vienna Bakery is located at 6726 West Coast Road.
|
Pirjo
Raits photo
Phoebe Dunbar is adding woodworking to her passions.
Around One More Point book cover written and illustrated by Mary
Gazetas, top right.
She lets nature dictate the shape she enhances in reclaimed wood
Unlocking her artistic potential
By
Pirjo Raits
Sooke News Mirror
Nov 22 2006
If you could harness a person's energy and positive attitude and
mold it into someone - that someone would likely turn out to be
Phoebe Dunbar.
Phoebe
is a human dynamo - she never stops looking around at the world
with the enthusiasm of someone who is seeing things for the first
time.
She
is an active outdoors woman, fisher, volunteer, and artist. Each
of her pursuits is infused with passion, wonder and her effusive
personality.
She
is known for many things in Sooke, and her latest creative venture
has her unlocking her artistic potential. She hadn't really thought
of herself as an artist, but rather a person who saw the beauty
of the world around her.
On
her forays into the woods and along the coasts of British Columbia,
she always managed
to
drag home interesting pieces of driftwood and roots. These found
items became Phoebe's medium.
"It's
wood sculpture," says Dunbar. "It's really nature that
does it."
She
works with the shapes, including the flaws, in the wood and manages
to find form and function in Mother Nature's leftovers. Her wood
comes from everywhere.
"Who
would have thought I would rave about what you can find in a clear-cut,"
she said.
Phoebe's
studio/workshop is full of burls, slabs and rounds of most of the
coastal tree species. When she first began carving, she used knives
and hand tools, now her choice is power tools.
Her
early woodwork was done when she and her twin sister Mary went on
their yearly paddling trips along the coastlines of B.C. It was
those trips along the coast that started Phoebe dreaming. She said
she was shaped as a person on those voyages. They gave her the confidence
and self assurance to try something new.
She
would carve in camp to fill the hours, then when she retired in
1998 she took a few lessons with Victor Newman.
"It's
time now to pursue artistic adventures and woodworking is an area
to be creative."
She
looks for pieces of burls with swirls, grooves, lips and sink holes.
The odder the shape the better as far as she is concerned. Her free-form
burl bowls come alive through the finishing stages of sanding, oiling
and waxing.
Her
first work was given away to friends and family and eventually someone
said she should try to sell some of it. This past weekend she set
up a display of her work at the All Sooke Arts and Crafts Christmas
Fair, and a few weeks ago she exhibited her burl bowls at her
twin
sister Mary's book launch at the Sooke Harbour House.
Mary
Gazetas wrote "Around One More Point" about her and Phoebe's
paddling adventures. For 24 years the sisters canoed and kayaked
all along the vast British Columbia coast.
The
book is laid out like a journal - full of photos, drawings and impressions
of the places they would visit. It is, in some ways, intensely personal,
but it does leave the reader yearning to spend time doing simpler
things.
Their
trips were never high-tech or West Coast-trendy. They were, at times,
in old beat-up canoes, with basic functional gear, and comfortable
clothes. It was just about being there, experiencing the water and
being together. The book gives one a glimpse into the lives of two
women, who in their own right are a example to us all, both for
their spirit of adventure and their open hearts.
Phoebe
wants to continue to grow as an artist. She still volunteers for
the numerous causes she takes on and for someone who was almost
wheelchair bound a year ago, she is living true to her ideals.
"Volunteering
is about making the world bigger than yourself," said Phoebe.
She
said if she hadn't volunteered she would never have know how rich
this community is.
For
Phoebe Dunbar it appears that retirement is just a concept.
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©
Copyright 2006 Sooke News Mirror
