The first Fundamentalist was carved in 2002 out of a three inch square by six inch tall basswood block. In an August, 2008 entry of this blog ~ (click on) Carving “The Fundamentalist” to read the carving journey at that occasion.  The opening introduction gave the premise for this themed carving which stated: “THE FUNDAMENTALIST” is a carving of a caricature interpretation of a strong-minded person who is so sure that what that person believes is the only truth and he has the proof to prove it at the end of where his finger is pointing.  A fundamentalist could be a preacher, a politician, a lawyer or any opinionated person who sees things only one way, his way and wants to convince anyone who will argue with him the error of their way for not seeing things the way the fundamentalist sees things.

 The current carving of the fundamentalist was carved out of a four-inch square by nine-inch-tall block of basswood.  The initial shaping cuts were made with palm gouges to get the feel of the form taking shape in a slow and methodically manner of allowing creative imagination to envision the form appearing in the reduction of removing excess wood.  The three photos below are of this beginning shaping stage with the use of gouges for removing and preliminary shaping.  These represent what occurs in the first six hours of carving. Notice that the original six-inch version is pictured beside the nine-inch work in progress.

The more serious shaping of individual sections of the carving turned to using knives to refine the basic form in preparation for detailing the form.  Each photo represents the end of each three-hour segment of carving of three hour progression between each photo.

The first two photos are of the same time frame that include carving of the wing tip shoes. Photos three and four are of the same time frame and almost in the final stages of being completed.

The first two photos are a close up of facial features and the hair texture of the back of the head.  The three photos that follow show the three views of the frontal and side profiles of the carving. (note: super glue was added to the edges of the pages to strengthen against breakage due to the cross grained edges of the pages.)

The final photo gallery displays the painted carving of the nine-inch fundamentalist.  Artist oil paints thinned with boiled linseed oil was used in this “Painting Softly” method.

“A picture is worth a thousand words…” as the saying goes and this photo essay speaks for itself of this latest interpretation of The Fundamentalist who tells it as he sees it.