Imagine... a river in Southeast Asia where a 12-year-old boy sits watching debris floating down from the upper reaches of the river where its narrow channel passes through a brilliant green bamboo forest. He looks for bamboo stumps that were torn from the river bank and have been washed clean of sand and dirt. He had learned from his father and grandfather to imagine faces in roots. He patiently waits for the right ones to come along, the ones he will drag out of the water and leave to dry before he begins to carve.

My friend gave me one of the carvings today.  In my thinking I’ve elevated the piece from craft to art.  In my house it’s not a carving, it’s sculpture... it’s art. While photographing it, I tried to imagine the young sculptor patiently releasing the figure from the clump of bamboo root.  The section of bamboo is just over two feet in length and a fraction over eight inches in diameter at the part of the root where he carved the face.  

Life is good!