Woman in a Blue Dress

Description

Michael Hosaluk’s love of woodworking has as much to do with the invention of new techniques and processes as it does with the beauty and mystery of the material. He prefers using a plain wood, such as the ash in Woman in a Blue Dress, because it allows him to approach the object as a canvas and use a variety of surface design techniques to express an idea. This is a change from Hosaluk’s earlier work using burls, which are so richly-grained that they guided the outcome of his turning. Now, the artist feels that his work is guided by his creativity, rather than by his choice of material.
Creating art with only his creativity as a guide is nothing new for Hosaluk, who was raised on a farm with no modern conveniences. As a child, he used hand tools to make wooden toys for himself and his friends. Today, Hosaluk creates both sculptural and functional pieces using wood salvaged from Saskatchewan’s forests. Hosuluk relates his pieces to his life, people he’s met, and his environment: “These stories are interwoven into the objects I create. Craft goes beyond the pleasure of our senses and deals not only with aesthetics, but also with our social and ideological lives.”
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004