New Tree Sculpture

     For those of you who are familiar with Larry's sculpture, his Fly Fisherman in Basalt, CO. is near and dear to your hearts.  It certainly put Larry in a category of his own making.  It also brought him a modicum of local fame.  This sculpture prompted Ann and Joe Kercheville of the "Lodge at River's Edge" to privately commission Larry for his second tree sculpture in the Roaring Fork Valley.  Fortunately for public art lovers, the sculpture can be publicly viewed from the road going up the Frying Pan river.

     In February of this year, the Kercheville's called Larry again.  A tree was struck by lightning on their beautiful Joshua Creek Ranch in Boerne, Texas  http://www.joshuacreek.com  They had decided to transform the loss of their tree into a work of art.  Lucky Larry!  Could he carve this tree, (above), from their personal ideas?  Of course!

     From clear up in Oregon we started our journey to Texas to carve this tree for Ann and Joe.  We're here to share it with you on our new website blog.  We hope you enjoy!

Journey to Texas

    Carving another tree was music to Larry's ears.  The anticipation became a visceral experience on our journey to Texas.  I was taking a picture of him in Lithia Park and I think he was 'becoming tree'.

    And again, I caught him doing his yoga tree pose with the beautiful mountains of northern N.M. behind him.  We were stretching our legs on the very long but very beautiful 2000 mile drive.

We arrived at the ranch

      April 1st we arrived in Boerne, TX.  In this photo Larry sizes up the big oak tree that has a nice location next to a raised road that leads to the beautiful Cypress Lodge at Joshua Creek Ranch.

Pruning the tree

      A great crew at Joshua Creek Ranch undertook the enormous task of pruning the tree according to Larry's sizing.  We want to extend a huge thank you to all eight men working.  Our thank you to the ranch manager, David Edwards for coordinating the job,  Eric and Jesse for their skills with big machinery, and Miguel, Rauul, Francisco, Havier and Juan for the heavy chainsaw work, chopping and taking away the felled branches of the huge tree.

Miguel and Crew

Amazing to watch

Gouging the bark

     When the crew left here is what Larry had to work with.

     After 11 days of design collaboration, the real work for Larry begins.  Gouging the bark is a tough beginning.

Beginning to cut the wood with the chainsaw.

          Larry confesses that even though he feels good for his 65 years, his ego wrestles with doubts in the Texas heat.  (And it's not even the hottest weather yet!)

With his new Stihl 250, the first step of cutting away wood for the sculpture begins.

Plenty of chiseling ahead...

    The long road of chiseling begins.  But if you're standing too close you better put a helmut on becuse this guy can CHISEL!!!  The wood chips FLY!

Another normal day at work for Larry :-)

An image appears

How can I take a picture?

     When I arrive for a revealing picture to see what he is carving - there's a tarp -- but it is a very necessary sunblock to protect Larry from the sun.

"Larry, will you raise the tarp?"

Larry is carving a cocker spaniel. It is rough looking at first and will take weeks of chiseling to get done

And it gets done - One.. wood.. chip... at a time......

Even when it's cold and windy

An English Cocker Spaniel

     But cold and windy is the exception.  The climate is nice and warm here in Texas.  A record drought is happening so we're praying for rain.

  

   In this picture the features are exaggerated to accommodate the final conformation of the dog.  This English Cocker Spaniel is a field dog, not a show dog.  He will be jumping at a Chinese ring-neck pheasant in tall blades of grass.

       

Little Visitors

    

In many of these pictures it appears that Larry is alone - but au contraire!  Very interesting little insects visit Larry frequently.  Some of these insects aren't really so little, and my lonely chisler has to be aware of the ones that sting -- like this scorpion below!    

The spider was very graceful, extremely curious and seemed to be unafraid.

                          

 

                                                                                  

The English Cocker Spaniel is nearing completion

     The work ahead consists of "fine tuning" the muzzle and tail.  In this picture Larry is chiseling in a tight place.