Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcia Perry.
Hi Marcia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My wood sculpting love affair began at 17 when I told my art teacher I wanted to carve an ashtray that would never be used.
She said “You’re on your own.”
So I found where I could buy a set of five little Millers Falls carving tools and then I visited Baker Furniture Company to see if they had any scrap wood available. They did.
And with the first ”scrunch” of a sharp little gouge plowing into a chunk of walnut wood, I was in love. The sound, the scent and the sight of what was hidden inside the bones of a tree bewitched me for life– not that I had any idea then that I would embrace a career as a sculptor.
For the next twenty years, I was on a personal odyssey to find the life’s work I was meant for and that made my heart sing. Educator, house painter, poet, gardener, counselor, child-minder, retail salesperson/ manager, direct marketing specialist, private investigator, copywriter, technical editor, postal worker, journalist, small business consultant, construction worker, corporate creative services manager and wife all failed their trials. But for all that time, I was carving things, mostly for gifts, some sold to pay for college.
When 33, I sold my house and traveled around the world looking to find my place in it; finally returning to Saugatuck to put down roots. I got divorced, borrowed enough money to buy a dilapidated building with a few acres and with the support of friends and family, took a leap of faith to see whether I could support myself as a full-time, professional sculptor.
Well, it’s been possible for the last 36 years and I am hoping it will remain so. Since the pandemic, I’ve been enlarging my indoor and outdoor studio and exhibition spaces to better share the experience of art in close connection with nature. It’s a slow process as I am committed to repurposing/recycling materials and have a limited budget.
I believe that what makes visiting my creative environs inspiring for others is witnessing the completely unglamorous process that leads to beautiful art. Starting with what seems like nothing worth noticing can with imagination and effort become something really wondrous.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Easy? No. Challenging? Always. And I like it that way.
Heeding the call of the sculptural muse in my mid-thirties, self-taught with no art school diplomas, just divorced, with meager financial resources certainly posed some challenges which had to be reckoned with. I made a plan that started with finding a place to both live and work, which for me meant lots of space to make big messes.
The parcel of three acres of neglected land (now 15 acres of unsullied woods) with a dilapidated building needing major renovation (now maintenance) is an ongoing practical challenge. To make the structure habitable initially required evicting the wasps, rodents and resident bat plus replacing the roof, all seventeen upstairs windows, fixing the well and plumbing, running new electrical, installing central heating, insulation and a lot of demolition, including the removal of asbestos from walls, floors and ceilings which I needed to do all by myself because of the health risks. (Disposal by professionals would have cost five times what I paid for the property!) There were also issues with flooding that required exterior berming, concrete work and digging a small pond. Having previously rehabbed my Grand Rapids house and taken a class or two in construction, I was excited to be sculpting my home as part of the greater creative mission upon which I had finally embarked.
My very first experience dealing with a local art gallery persuaded me that I needed to be in charge of how my sculptures reached their intended homes. The cost of paying a gallery 50% of a sculpture’s price was too much. I had been both a gallery manager and an advertising/marketing pro so I resolved to convert my living room into a gallery space and welcome the art-loving public to come.
The challenge of marketing my work persists. Despite being a successful salesperson for other people’s work, I still struggle to be comfortable with self-promotion and putting a price on what is for me a spiritual endeavor.
Inviting people to visit my Ark introduced a psychological challenge for me as I learned how vulnerable I am to distractions of all kinds. My work listening to trees requires my complete attention and even staying alert to the expectation of interruption can pull me away from where I most love or need to be. I share the fascination for watching someone work and can demonstrate using various tools, but the deep, sacred work only happens when I am alone with a tree. Having been born a night owl, I do much of my work in the wee hours.
The major obstacles to my continuing “success” are psychological: fear of failure, fear of success, perfectionism, self-doubt.
The physical challenges of staying healthy enough to do the intensive, physical work required to carve big heavy logs or rocks is ongoing and accelerates with age.
Maintaining financial “security” is another ever-present challenge. Living in a small resort community at the heart of the Art Coast of Michigan requires adapting to a seasonal economy where winters bring quiet, snowy isolation and summers bring a vibrant rush of visitors, but never a guarantee of income.
I tend to view financial or productive dry spells and life’s unpredictable pivots not as roadblocks, but as essential chapters of an ever-evolving story of my life, a masterpiece in a different medium.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What sets you apart from others?
The short answer:
I am true to myself and honest with others, while always questing to learn and help and create beautiful artworks..
A longer answer:
My work is getting to know trees from the inside out and sharing their beauty and wisdom with people. It is my supreme joy and privilege to serve as trees’ advocate and Earth’s protector, a purposeful instrument for sharing what I know and love.
When trees die, their spirits live on. I work to bring them new life by revealing what they’ve hidden within, the stories of their lives encoded in their bodies. I believe that exposing what is so beautiful inside of cast-off trees may help bridge the gap that too often separates humans from the natural world.
Using a variety of tools from chainsaws to carving gouges to dental picks and abrasives, I explore discarded tree parts to reveal their beauty. Most of what emerges is described as feminine and sensual/sensuous. I sometimes feel that I was born to help balance out the too-angular, linear human world by bringing back more curves.
While most of my tools are violent–chainsaws, gouges, mallets, grinders, abrasives–my intention is quite the opposite. I am there to listen with my heart, staying open to direction from the faint voices of the trees.
Working intuitively with wood means you cannot rush the process. You have to wait for the grain to show itself, for the textures to reveal themselves, and for your tools to keep pace with the felt-not-seen vision that informs your hands. Sometimes the tree goes quiet and then I know to answer a different tree’s call to collaborate. So I leap-frog from piece to piece which creates quite a crowd of works-in-progress.
Very few people directly carve in wood anymore. Far fewer sculpt one-of-a-kind in-the-round artworks. Why? Because it’s a physically demanding, time-consuming process in an age of mass production and high labor cost. But while a 3-D printer can make solid a 2-D drawing or reproduce a 3-D wood sculpture, technology cannot replicate the unique, energetic beauty of any one tree. Carving into wood with sharp primitive tools creates a connection and for me, that relationship determines the resulting form. It is the offspring of two spiritual beings.
This process of joining forces with my materials works similarly for stone or clay, etc. but my passion is reserved for serving the beautiful, ever-loving spirits of trees. Because passion of any kind is contagious, sharing my passion has the power to spark the embers to light other people’s creative fires or open the floodgates of their creative flow. And that indirect effect of my creative enterprises I know to be another reason why I do what I do.
Unlike most artists, I have not chosen to separate my art from my daily life. My gallery isn’t just a storefront and my studio isn’t just a workshop. My Ark home is a living, breathing ecosystem immersed in nature where creativity thrives, strangers connect, and magic happens. When people step into this world, they are in for a little adventure, not just a look at some sculptures on pedestals.
Because sculpture is a tactile art, everyone is encouraged to touch whatever won’t hurt them, to sit in the chairs and hold the Birds for the Hand in their hands, because that’s how sculpture communicates, via the whole body, not merely the eyes or ears.
Here they witness in person, non-virtually, one woman’s commitment to the creative life, honoring the natural environment, and finding value and awe-worthy beauty in things most people ignore.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
People will always need and want art. Art, and especially art that connects us to the natural world, enhances and sustains our physical and emotional health. Quite apart from the economic playground of the elite international art markets, art will continue to fascinate and influence pretty much everyone. That should extend the current trend for fine art to be both a stellar investment and necessary enhancement for daily life.
I do hope that more people of every walk of life may enjoy the benefits and rewards of art appreciation and art making of every kind. Having found my own enthralling passion, I wish that everyone could direct their lives to some creative purpose and thereby eliminate all thoe destructive alternatives–war, addiction, violence. If you’re doing what you love, there’s no time for what you don’t love.
To that end, I offer some classes and enjoy sharing my story and writings to interested groups.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marciaperry-ark.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marciaperryarts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Saugatucktreelady
