Richard Weigand has spent his life thinking, reflecting, learning, creating, reflecting some more, gaining understanding, and putting that understanding to work through the production of his hands. He brings the lessons of history to bear on what he sees as today’s issues, and he uses ideas and images that he meets in the everyday to explore the great lessons he’s learned in his life.

Take skulls, for example. How is it that the bony remains of a human head can become the object of an artist’s creative impulse, vehicle for his expression, symbol for lessons the artist wants to share?

Perhaps, one day the artist spots a sugar skull in a shop in Mexico; later, he notices a skull tattoo on the bulging bicep of a guy in a restaurant. He goes to his shop and bumps his knee on the CNC machine he’d installed for a particular job, then goes for a walk in the woods and spies the remains of a deer skull.  He remembers that back in his shop there is a chunk of wood, cut from the stump of an apple tree, that’s been in his inventory for years.

Then, in the artist’s mind, heart, and hands, it all comes together, the lessons, the vision, the craft, the tools. And wooden skulls start coming out.

Richard Weigand is an artist, now offering hand-crafted, carved wooden skulls: all colors and sizes, with knots, grain, curves, voids, and stories told and untold. Their true and complete source is a mystery, but it’s a good one.

See more of Richard’s work here.