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"Constellation"
Christopher Cantwell creates various types of wall art and sculpture using inlay techniques. Over the thirty-five years that he has been an artist he has not only developed a mastery of inlay, but also of wood identification. His collection of different types of wood has grown as well. What started out as artwork with several types of wood in it has turned into artwork with over two-hundred different types of wood in individual pieces. Next time you see him at a show, ask him to identify some of the woods in a piece. He has a story for each different kind of wood that he works with, where it came from, how he found it.
His passion for his medium has also lead him to be involved in the movement to protect the world's forests. This movement is reflected in some of his art. His piece called "Too Deep in the Forest" goes together with a piece called "Jingoland" and they are a commentary on his involvement in tropical forest conservation.
When he was young, Christopher lived in Yosemite Valley and rock climbed for a while. Some of his first pieces were modeled after Yosemite Falls and other waterfalls in Yosemite. Although his waterfall series is now more abstract, the similarities to Yosemite can sill be seen in pieces like "Snowmelt" and "Confluence".
"Constellation", shown above, is the first piece of its kind. It inspired a number of pieces with the same style. He works diligently cutting each shape individually and placing them together in the wall piece. In 2003, a woodworking student from Scotland came to stay with Christopher and learn as much about his style of artwork as he could. One of the things that Joseph was interested in learning about was the different types of wood that Christopher used. This interest led Christopher to discover that he was using already using about 85 different types of wood. With this discovery, he searched for some new woods and soon grew this list to 100. The result was the beginning of the 100 Woods Series with the piece "100 Wood Acre". Later this list grew to 200 woods and many of the newer pieces in this same series actually contain 200 woods. He is still finding new woods to add to this list.
In the Artwork section of this website you can see the variety of different types of work that Christopher has created over the years, including the ones above.
Find out more about the artist Here.
Keep up with current shows and other news Here.
Find a gallery near you Here.
*All the photographs and artwork displayed on this website are copyrighted and may not be used without permission.