Green Ash and Conks

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Brian Gladwell, “Sconce,” 2019

green ash, shellac, wax and milk paint, 6” x 9” x 5”

When a green ash outside Brian Gladwell’s Regina apartment was felled and cut into firewood, he saw a chance for a new project.

He salvaged some chunks and began to make wall-mounted sconces.

Their flat tops are polished and they can be mounted sturdily on the wall, so the sconces are functional. But each piece also reveals interesting formal aspects, whether the wood grain or the tree’s thick bark. They become art objects, as well as memorials to the tree.

“They represent an intersection between the rough and the polished or the outdoor and the interior,” says Gladwell, a self-taught furniture maker known for his eye-popping use of corrugated cardboard.

Some 20 works, both sconces and larger wall pieces he calls consoles, are on view until March 2 at the Slate Gallery in Regina as part of Bark. It’s a partner show to Free Ranging, which features ceramic works by Saskatchewan artist Zane Wilcox.

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Brian Gladwell, “Console,” 2019

poplar conk, shellac, milk paint and wax, 7.5” x 21” x 8”

Some of Gladwell's works are made with poplar conks – large woody knots formed after a fungus invades the tree.

“They have otherworldly kind of textures, colours and forms,” he says.

The bark of many of Gladwell’s pieces are marked with dabs of red, green or yellow paint. The practical reason is to cover places where chips of the bark were knocked off when the wood was harvested. But Gladwell also likes the way the paint looks. “It’s that intersection between the contrived and the natural,” he says.

Gladwell, born in North Battleford, Sask., in 1947, enjoys figuring out new ways to transform odd-shaped scraps of salvaged wood into something both functional and beautiful.

“Much of my work is an intersection between something that’s expected and something that’s not expected.” ■

Bark is on view at the Slate Gallery in Regina from Jan. 24 to March 2, 2019.