Sassy

Description

Lyle Jamieson is known for figurative pieces like Sassy, one of a series of hollow vessels in the shape of the female form. He sees his finished work as a relationship between the wood and the form created from it. “The grain reacts to the rounded surfaces of the human form. I try to reveal the beauty, color, and design of the wood; to bring the human figure into the mix has been stimulating and satisfying.”
Design and planning are essential to Jamieson’s process; before he starts turning a block of wood he sketches an outline of the piece directly on the block. For the figurative pieces, Jamieson uses large, straight-grained logs of salvaged Michigan hardwoods. While he has been turning only since 1990, his appreciation for wood as an aesthetic medium comes from the childhood lessons he received from his father, a wood pattern maker.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004