Daniel Gruetter, Composition 4 (2022)

Daniel Gruetter
Composition 4
2022
Hard maple (Acer spp.), honey locust, (Gleditsia triacanthos), Sassafras (Sassafras albidum), oxidized black cherry (Prunus serotina), linseed oil, oil-varnish
5 ½ x 5 ½ inches
 
"I grew up in a house made of douglas fir and western red cedar. There was a lot of wood everywhere in the house. As a kid, I would lie in bed and stare up at the wood ceiling and imagine landscapes, characters, and animals in the wood's grain, in water stains, in knots.

I left Bella Coola in my teens, but I would return periodically to visit family and friends. I continue to visit, nearly 20 years on. One of these visits a few years ago, I ended up sleeping in a bedroom that I didn't usually stay in. It was the bedroom I shared with my brother as a young child. As I lay in bed and stared up, I was greeted by many familiar old faces, places, characters, and stories of my childhood imagination.

It is easy to stop looking at wood or to never look at it at all, and yet there is so much to see. With these new works I hope to create something akin to my childhood experience of looking at wood." — Daniel Gruetter