Bruce
Hodgson
Artist’s Bio
Bruce has always admired wood products for the artistry of nature they
display. He recalls walking through fine furniture galleries, marveling
at the infinite variety of colours and figure revealed in the wood.
With a teaching colleague in 1994, he began to make small bowls for
Christmas presents for friends and family. In 2003, by happy
circumstance, he happened upon a woodturning display and demonstration
by members of the GVWG (Greater Vancouver Woodturning Guild) at the
Cloverdale Wood Show. It was a revelation to see the variety and
quality of the work. He joined GVWG and has since attended many
demonstrations and classes offered by top local and international wood
turners. With each of these, he has been inspired to refine his craft.
Bruce works predominately with local woods, particularly big leaf maple
and cherry. He enjoys the entire process involved in woodturning, from
gathering the wood and rough shaping it with a chainsaw, to turning and
refining the shape on the lathe, to achieving an eye-catching finish
which displays the full beauty of the wood. Each time he puts a new
piece of wood on the lathe, he feels the excitement of finding what is
‘inside’ the wood, like Michelangelo looking inside
the block of marble to expose the figure of
‘David’. In preparation of a piece, he will often
change the orientation of the wood on the lathe to best show off the
wood. Until recently, he concentrated on salad bowls and platters. In
the past year, he has turned a series of “natural
edged” cherry bowls (the top edge of the bowl is the outside
bark edge of the tree), turned very thin while the wood is still wet,
sanded and oiled, and allowed to distort as it dries. He is excited
with the results, as every piece is truly unique. Lately, he has turned
a series of hollow forms: vase forms with a very small opening at the
top, through which the bulk of the interior is removed to leave a
delicate, light-weight piece. The upright vase form allows the viewer
to admire the grain at the top of the piece, whereas it would be
scooped away in a bowl form. All the pieces are sanded to a very fine
finish, then oiled and buffed to accentuate the beauty of
nature’s “figured” wood.
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