Richard Wollman
Wood Sculptures
Artist Statement
My work as a sculptor in wood is an art of cooperation with natural materials, as I make use of the patterns in the grain, its contours, and the designs created by weather and pests that give each piece its own character. I use trunks of local white ash, a species that is being devastated in New England by the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that leaves intricate patterns beneath the bark. My bas-relief pieces are made using chisels, wood burner, acrylics, and stains.
Recent work focuses on the power of myth in sculptures that explore the interior lives of women in Greek mythology and the Old Testament to find meaning in the pain of our lived experience. Drawing inspiration from Carl Jung’s definition of myths as “constants whose expression is everywhere and at all times the same,” I render landscapes within which I reimagine stories from our far-off past that continue to have life in our present times. By transforming a destructive aspect of nature into art, my work parallels the transformations that occur in myth. I discover what’s beautiful in something blighted and give meaning to what was already there in the wood.
Portfolio
Leda & the Swan
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2024
$4750
The Grief of Ceres
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Iris: Purification of Juno
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Clymene
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Philomela
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Pandora
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Eurydice
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Alcyone
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Callisto
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$2750
Nemesis
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$1750
Diana & Actaeon
Wood (pine), acrylic • 2026
$3250
Refuge: Azores Beach
Wood (pine), acrylic • 2025
$4750
Close to Home: Merrimack River
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2025
$2750
Three Trees in Maudslay
Wood (sweet crabapple), acrylic • 2023
$2250
Angel at the Shore
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$4750
Solitude I
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$3250
Ruth (Wherever You Go I Will Go)
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$4750
Hagar
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$4750
Hebe
Wood (white ash), acrylic • 2026
$4750
Maine Girl
Pine board, acrylic • 2025
Azores Waterfall
Pine board, acrylic • 2024
$1750
Havana
Pine board, acrylic • 2024
$1750
Eve
Pine board, acrylic • 2024
$2275
Sarah I
Pine board, acrylic • 2023
$1750
Sarah II
Pine Board, acrylic • 2023
$2275
Portrait of Martin Ramirez
Wood (pine), acrylic
$4750
Ramirez: My Wife Sances with Death
Wood (pine), acrylic
$4750
Apotheosis of Martin Ramirez (front)
Wood (pine), acrylic
$5250
Apotheosis of Martin Ramirez (back)
Wood (pine), acrylic
$5250
3 Graces
Wood (pine)
$3250
Miriam
Wood (white ash), acrylic
$325
Daphne
Wood (white ash) • 2026
$3250
Sarah III
Wood (pine)
$2275