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Harry Pollitt ESCHER TIDE c Sisso 2’-3 ½” high x 1’-0” wide x 2” deep Named in honor of M. C. Escher who drew so many wonderful brainteasers where ramps, stairs and ladders ran both up and down at the same time depending on where you focused your eyes. This piece is intended to capture that essence in three dimensions. Have fun with it. $1,400 Harry Pollitt PASSAGES INTO THE VOID c Red Cedar 4’-3” high x 1’-0” wide x 1’-0” deep $22,400 This piece of red cedar was found in Clinton, NJ. A home owner put it on the side of the road on a brush clean-up day. One man’s trash, as they say. About the Title New Age thinking has it that through meditation, one can slip between the spaces in thoughts and access the eternal realm. I chose the title so that the viewer might have a sense of the meditation that is my work. On a regular basis, I assign my left brain a logic or math problem to solve and while it is distracted, the right brain slips into that wonderland that is the source of creativity and inspiration. It is my own private play land where time and our so-called reality do not exist. When artists talk about partnering with the work, this is what they mean. This piece reminds me of that other dimension or realm. There are endless access points or routes to get from the outside to the inside or from one side to the other. It is all around us. And accessible to all. If you have ever had the experience of trying to remember someone’s name and, try as you might, can’t, then when you let go of trying, the name suddenly comes to you. That is it. That is the gift that is there. That is where I go. But when I do, it is for extended visits. I often miss meals. Harry Pollitt ROMANCING THE STONE c Rhododendron & Granite 9 ¾” high x 15" wide x 5” deep $1,400 This piece is sculpted from a Rhododendron root burl that so tenaciously cradled this piece of granite that my only option was to honor their 30+ year relationship. The bush was approximately 15 “ high, a normal growth for wild rhododendron in western North Carolina. The bush grew on property my wife Gaye and I own in Madison County, NC. It was dislodged during heaving spring rains in the early 1980s from the mountain slope it grew on. Recycling at its best. Harry Pollitt UPDRAFT c Swiss Alpine Basswood (Linde) 2’ high x 1’ 2" wide $10,500 Dreams are an important aspect of my art. When I am having difficulty with an element of one of my pieces, I leave it alone for a while and inevitably the solution comes to me in dream state. Many times in dreams, I see shapes flashing on the screen of my subconscious like a slide show. Occasionally I will have vivid dreams that encompass full, definable objects. One night in 1998 I had a dream involving a pile of ribbon that was being lifted vertically by hot air. It was a fluid movement like lava being shot up from a volcano. The dream ended and then there was an instantaneous flashback. A single moment with a frozen picture of the object and the name Updraft appeared. In 1999 I set about capturing the form I had seen in my dream. I created a wooden, hollow framework 12” square x 24” high on which I penciled a grid. I then cut strips of stiff ribbon 2” wide and made several attempts to wrap and twist it into the shape of my design within the confines of the hollow framework. On the fifth attempt, with the ribbon now 32’ long, I was able to satisfactorily capture the essence of the vision. I then glued up 11 pieces of basswood 1 ¾” thick to create a sold block with the same external dimensions as the hollow framework to use as a sculpture blank. I measured and transferred the lines from the framework grid to the sculpture blank – and began sculpting. A total of five months were required from start to finish. Welcome to my subconscious. Something extra. In many of my works, I try to include hidden treasures that are not readily apparent. Things left for the person who spends enough time with the piece to discover. I will share one with you included in this piece. If you were to take a length of ribbon and form it into a circle and join the ends, you would have an object with an inside and outside surface and two edges. If you were to cut the ribbon and twist one end of it ½ turn and then rejoin the ends, if you traced the surface with your finger, after you went around one time, you would find that your finger was on the opposite surface of the ribbon. It would take you twice around to get back to the same point from which you started. This is called a “mobius band,” named after the 19th Century mathematician Mobius. The object is a paradox. It is clearly three-dimensional, but by definition an object having only one surface, like a ribbon, is two-dimensional. Updraft is a mobius band. But don’t take my word for it. Try it. Next Page