Rolling with the stone

Walking into Jerry Wood’s studio is like walking into another era. The still grace of the sculptures themselves are the only suggestion of movement, except for the carver himself surrounded by the chink, chink of hammer and chisel on stone. Dust floats in the air and comes to rest like a skiff of sepia-colored snow on finished and half-finished pieces.

Wood will be showing 20 sculptures at a solo exhibition at the Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs for the month of February. The selection of carvings include his first ever along with his latest piece.

The exhibit, titled “A Journey with Stone”, shows Wood’s progression through the years and the different directions he has taken with carving.

Wood does what is called “direct carving”. He doesn’t start out with an idea. Instead, he just begins carving and lets the work develop into a form and the result is often influenced by the original shape of the stone.

Wood has dabbled in drawing cartoons, wood carving and oil painting, but stone carving is his passion. He likes the permanence of stone.

“You can always redo oil paintings,” Wood said. “You have to commit to stone. You have to make up your mind and finish the piece - you can’t restart.”

Stone carvers do have to remain open to design changes, though.

“If the piece breaks in two, then you have two pieces to carve,” Wood said.

Stone carving is a physical process from start to finish. Some of the blocks Wood starts with weigh almost 600 lbs. and he uses an engine hoist to get them into his studio.

The act of carving is physical too. Wood started carving in 1979 and used hand tools until 1993 when he gave air tools a try. Now he uses both.

Wood sounds out the stone with a hammer and a pointer to make sure it has a good, ringing quality to it, like crystal. Dull thuds represent flaws in the stone.

“The advantage of using hand tools is you can hear the ringing as you go and when you hear a thud, you can work it out of the stone,” Wood said.

Stone can be expensive too. Marble weighs about 177 lbs. per cubic foot and goes for $120 per cubic foot. Translucent alabaster, on the other hand, goes for as much as $1.50 per pound.

Sometimes when Wood is nearing completion of a piece, sanding, smoothing and finishing it, he gets restless and begins carving another chunk of stone. Carving is a stress reliever for him.

“When I’m frustrated, I like to start from the raw and let the chips fly,” Wood said.

Many of Wood’s sculptures are animals but he also creates human figures. He likes to do abstract pieces too—that way he can experiment and see how far he can push the stone by achieving thinness and different shapes.

Usually soft-spoken, when Wood talks about carving, words tumble out and his eyes shine through whitish stone dust.

“There are never enough hours to carve,” Wood said. “If I’m not carving, I’m thinking about carving.”