Don Stephenson,  my artist friend who continues to come up with neat carving ideas has done it again with a “Hillbilly Drawing.”   This hillbilly captures the mental image of how most people picture a hillbilly.  All art is an interpretation of an idea, an image or a memory.  Art is also fluid as one interpretation flows into another interpretation so that one subject can have many interpretations without any duplication of theme, appearance or appeal.

A drawing of a hillbilly is a two dimensional interpretation while a carving of that same hillbilly becomes a three dimensional interpretation of the two dimensional drawing.  A drawing of a hillbilly is in one medium of art while a carving of that same hillbilly is in another medium.  Don Stephenson’s drawing of a hillbilly was used as inspiration for carving a hillbilly out of an inch and half square by six inch tall block of basswood using a Bud Murray 539 knife as depicted in the first photograph in the photo journey below which shows various views of the completed carving of a hillbilly.  The carving is finished with artist oil paint Raw Sienna mixed with Boiled Linseed Oil to produce on monochrome finish in order to emphasis that  “texture is color.” Read the rest of this entry »