Do Others See Your Carvings As You Do?

[Lynn O. Doughty]

When I carve something my biggest worry is how it will be viewed by others. By this I don't mean will they like it or not but how they actually "see" it. When I interpret an arm, leg, eye, body will it seen the same way by someone else? I look at other peoples carvings and sometimes just can't understand that that is how they could "See" something. It certainly doesn't look like anything I've ever seen. Of course, on the other hand I see pieces where I say "Gee, I wished I could see that as clearly as they do."
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I'm sure that, being human, we all see things from different perspectives...that's what makes us all unique. However, there must be some point out there where a rose to me looks exactly as a rose does to you, where I can point to something and say "Do you see that?" and your answer will be "Yes!" If I can ever reach that point I will be able to say I've succeeded.

[bbowers]

I'm not sure you can ever get to that point with everyone. We all look at things from our own set of references. You see a great rose and I see a red flower. I think it is interesting (and frustrating) to listen and watch people when viewing a carving. They will notice things I took for granted and appreciate things I saw no real value in. I guess the beauty is that we all are different.
Barry

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Lynn............a rose by any other name...........is STILL a thorny bush! lol

[BobD]

Very interesting question, Lynn. It's another case where the microcosm echoes the macrocosm...in other words, it's one of those things that has far-reaching implications.

Let's look at the example of written communication (since we're all familiar with it). The majority of my job is to take what makes sense to one person (the author of the article) and reword it to make sense to the majority of the readers. In the beginning, I had two difficulties.

1. Keeping the author's voice. I felt it was important that the article still sounded like the author was saying it in a class.

2. Trying to keep everything from sounding the same.

On my journey as an editor, I've realized that sometimes you need to make sacrifices for clarity. That means that I have to sacrifice some of the author's voice in the instructional part of the article to make sure it is understandable by the general readers. That also makes some of the instructional sections sound a bit the same. That bothered me at first, but I realized that my opinions don't matter; clarity of thought does.

I think "reading" a carving is very similar. There are some things nearly everyone can see in a carving, even if it's not 100% realistic. We know it's a representation of the subject in wood, so we can "allow" for some artistic liberties.

But there are some things we can't accept. A joint bent at an awkward or impossible angle, for example, without a contextual reason (someone fell off a cliff and broke his or her leg, and it's show as bent at an impossible angle). I think that as long as everything has a context, our brains will adapt.

Does that mean that everyone is going to see the same thing in your carving? No. Just like everyone has a different concept of what is beautiful, people are going to see something different in your carving. But if everything in the carving makes sense, I think you've succeeded with the carving.

Bob

[Kenny_S]

Since another person has their own brain(well some do), set of eyes, opinions. I don't believe they see the same thing in a carving as the carver does. For one thing, if they do not carve nor understand the process, they can't see it the same. Even if one is a carver, They still can't see it as the carver sees it. Like being an editor, he sees it one way, a person who doesn't understand the process that an article goes through can't possibly see it the same.

That's me story and I am sticking to it. LOL, , ROTFLMHO

[oldbearx2]

I think we can look at it through an artists eyes. What may be a pleasing painting or sculpture (carving) to some may not be so pleasing to others. Look at Picasso, some people absolutely love his paintings, others cannot stand them. Each artists has their own interpetation of what the subject, he is creating should look like, that is, how he sees it in his mind. Each person who looks at that art also has their own interpetation of what the subject should look like,
I had an art instructor once tell me "don't just look with your eyes, see with your brain". In some of my animal carvings I will put them in, what is in my opinion, an interesting pose. I had someone tell me they had never seen a mother bear sitting on her rump, which is what the carving depicted. But if you know the anatomy of a bear you know it is possible for them to do so. I could see that in my mind, even though I never had pictures to guide me, just what I thought it should look like. I too have looked at other carvings and wished I could "see" what the carver saw. But to do that we would have to look into each others minds.

Have fun, carve
Harold

[VAwoodcarver]

I worry about the exact thing! I wonder if something may look right to me but not to most. And usually i dont notice and worry about certain parts of a piece until it is done and on the shelf..but then again if something looks right to you chances are there are a lot of other people it looks right to also..

[Ron T]

Hi Lynn,

I don't know about you but most of the people I know see my carvings exactly as I do. The only difference is they're all a bunch of liars. They look at the carving and see what I see, then say "Hey, looks great, nice work, good detail." Yeah, right!

[aulddiy]

Ron T. you've got that right.
Being a beginner, if an old one, I'm just happy they've stopped asking " What's it meant to be". Hell that hurts.

As for the written word in my experience the biggest problem is that many do n't read what's written. Why, dammed if I know.
John A

[sccarnes]

Lynn,
it is refreshing that you would ask that question,
when many of us out here, not all, but many, would like to achieve the level of carving that you have reached, and to hear you ask that , well i guess when i question one of my pieces , maybe in that way , i to am a carver.
that would be about the only thing i could have in common with the great carvers.
like Ron says , yea right,
but i guess since i can't hear, when i give one of my carvings to someone, i can see their face, an then i know i done good, or it's back to the drawing board.
don't ASK the question WHY
ACT on the question WHY.
SAM