"Muse #3" by Bruce Mitchell, 1990

20.5" wide x 4" deep x 11" high

Turned and Carved Redwood Burl, 1990. Mitchell has been working with wood for over four decades and is is widely known for his lathe­ turned vessels, sculptural tables, benches and abstract forms. In addition to books and catalogs, his work can be found in numerous museums and private collections throughout the United States. As Bruce’s early lathe work evolved from the austere, classic shapes of Asian ceramics into more spontaneous, one ­of ­a ­kind sculptural vessels, he began to expand upon the carving techniques he learned from his mentor J.B. Blunk in developing pure abstract forms from tabletop to monumental in scale - as this 1990 piece exemplifies. "Making art is something I absolutely have to do because it fills my life with a delight like nothing else. What makes that experience so fulfilling for me is exploring the connection between my feelings for the material and the sense of discovery that happens in the making of an object. My primary focus is to use my experience, instinct and intuition to visualize an intrinsic shape within the raw material that relates to its own unique personality, responding to the changing rhythms of positive and negative spaces that emerge as a form develops. My intent as an artist is to draw upon nature and my excursions into dream worlds and the unknown by giving life to that experience through the language of sculpture." - Bruce Mitchell