Wood Carving c. 1943

Clayton Clements made this wood carving. The warm brown tones and grainy textures immediately give the impression of something tactile, something grounded. You can almost smell the sawdust and feel the resistance of the wood against the blade. I can imagine Clements, maybe late in the day, feeling the shape emerging, the wood becoming something else entirely. Look at the way the planes intersect, these carved ridges almost like a geological formation. Were these intentional, planned in advance, or did they emerge through a process of intuition and discovery? The teeth-like shapes feel a bit unsettling; is it a creature of the forest? A relic from a forgotten civilization? It makes me think of the way folk artists have always used simple materials to express complex ideas, transforming the everyday into something extraordinary, something alive with possibility.