Chris Hanen

Artist Statement

I’m a woodcarver in the mountains of California, shaping dead wood from the forest around my home into objects that illuminate the beauty of the tree. The deadwood presents itself as a featureless lump. Oxidation and sunlight wrap the surface in a drab, grey skin.

Climate anxiety motivates my art, as summers are hotter and rain is less frequent. Trees dry out and topple over. Acorns sprout, then wither in the baked soil. I connect to the tree, shaping its dead wood into objects that illuminate its beauty and memorialize what once existed here.

As a kid, I carved a chunk of manzanita at summer camp and gave it to my mother. She kept it on her living room shelf for 40 years. Manzanita is a sentimental, impractical wood. It grows in curving loops, cracking and changing textures, with a center the color of blood.

I carve wood into the shapes it "wants" to be, rather than imposing a design on it. I love flaws and damage, highlighting places where the tree has repaired itself and making my own repairs as a kind of devotion to nature's resiliency.

In practice, I use a bandsaw (which cuts curves rather than straight lines), a disc sander to create symmetry, and a rotary tool for detail. I don't think wood should look or feel like plastic, so I use a mixture of beeswax and pine resin to seal it and enhance its natural color.

My wife grows and dries flowers and is an expert at arranging them. The combination of carved wood and floral design, like our marriage, is greater than the sum of its parts.