Wordz of Justice

My journey as an artist began when I was schooled by my uncle Nolan Chambers on a unique wood carving technique that he learned from his older brother Donald Chambers.  What I owe them can't be measured. My first efforts were duplicates of pieces that my uncles made. After several pieces, I altered their designs to add my own touch. Within months, my own style emerged.   We used scrap wood in the beginning...whatever we could find.    On my first visit to Southern Lumber Company in San Jose to actually purchase wood, I spent half the day discovering an astounding diversity of woods, from aspen to zebrawood, that I never knew existed.   It amazed me to consider that the piece of ebony I held might have came from a tree that witnessed the birth of slavery. The slice of oak may have provided shade for the Underground Railroad.   Some mother's child might have hung from the Tennessee Pine.  I touched a lot of wood that day and a lot of wood touched me.

I chanced upon a once proud tree
All sliced and slaughtered on the shelf
At Southern Lumber Company
I heard its voice and found myself
Could I fulfill its destiny
To make its truth outlive its seeds  
And did I dare accept its plea
To chronicle the history
Of sacred songs of birds of peace
That nested deep within its reach
Of sons of slaves whose eyes reflect
The memory of noose on neck
Of troubled waters left to wade
From hell to hope to brighter days
Once proud tree whispers to me
That it wants to stand strong and bold again!
Woodwordz

Over the years my work has evolved at a casual pace.   I have learned to create when I feel the urge and to fully embrace dormant periods in which my focus and energies are drawn to other life domains. I find guidance and inspiration from an infinite variety of sources.  On rare occasions I'm blessed to find a piece of wood that has its own voice. Most often, I use wood to convey my perspective, observations and reflections of life in this mad, beautiful world we inhabit.   Sometimes images or ideas come from what I believe to be ancestral forces. Whatever the inspiriation, I strive...

to dream awake
to give more than I take
to carve truth into all that I create
to abstract - to freeflow
to translate what tree roots know
to talk with my hands
to reach deep like a drum
to make woodwordz outlive the seeds
of the trees they came from
to speak bold and fluent wood
so my children's children will know where I stood