Spirit Man

Arbutus. 1982. 5 3/4″ high figure. Private Collection.

One evening at dusk, house-sitting and sculpting on Galiano Island, I ‘saw’ this form in the post of a woodshed. Up close it was just a small protruding branch but from farther back it was a human head and torso. A bare bulb over the back porch cast pale light from 30 feet, so I started carving immediately using a round of firewood for a stool. At 3:00 a.m. I had finished carving and sanding. I applied some liquid finish, went to bed, and in the morning I took these photographs.

Sometimes, magical things happen when we are open to them – – Spirit Man! I cannot explain it.

Photos by Lee Gass

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On occasion, Spirit Man evokes strong emotional responses in viewers, triggered by the blood apparently trickling from the nose and mouth of the figure. For some, the figure is Christ, the blood represents his suffering on the cross, and the experience of the sculpture is a spiritual one. For others, always women, the sculpture represents violence they themselves have experienced at the hands of their fathers and other men.