Uli Kirchler - Artist Showcase | NWAA

NWAA showcases PNW artists doing exceptional work and making an impact on our community. nwartalliance.org
"I was born and raised in the German speaking part of Italy, called South Tyrol. For 10 years or so, I made a living playing music all around Europe. I was a “one-man-band”, guitar in hand, drums on my back, harmonica propped around my neck.
Always marching to the beat of my own drum, I found my way to the wonderful world of woodworking, the focus of my creative energies over the past 25 years. I had no formal training, relying instead on my imagination and my fascination with the beauty of wood as a means of honing my skills.
I use a chainsaw, bandsaw, scroll saw and a number of sanders to cut, shape and grind my wood. Sustainability is very important to me. As an artist, I feel best when I can add value to a piece of wood that in most circumstances would be discarded. I use the entire tree: the lumber to build and sculpt, the twigs and sawdust for inlays.
Most of the woods I use are from the West, Oregon and California. It is important that I select each piece, for in each piece lies the art, waiting to be revealed. Many of the pieces I select have a fungus that causes discoloration, known as spalting, in the wood. Like a painter, I use that color variation to turn plain-looking wood into something far more exotic and alluring. Nature and art collaborating!
Other natural characteristics, such as holes and cracks, give me the opportunity to inlay twigs, rocks I find hiking, different colored eggshells, grains of rice, bricks, aluminum shavings from my broken lawn chair…
In my shop I surround myself with chunks and cuttings of burls and logs, all inspiring my imagination. As I work, I determine the shape and form of each piece, always allowing the wood itself to influence my work and design.
I exclusively use a scroll saw to cut each tower of my landscape castles and villages. With the right angle and a few precise cuts I’m able to create wooden towers that burst in and out of chunks of wood with the flick of a wrist."
www.ulikirchle...
/ ulikirchler
Video production: Kuria Jorissen - Call of the Mountains Photography
art.callofthem...

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Really enjoyed this video - outstanding story and woodwork!!!