Sculpture

Michael Peterson draws inspiration from the natural landscape of the Pacific Northwest. In recent years, Peterson has developed a series of madrone sculptures, carved damp with a chainsaw and left to shrink and warp as they dry. He sandblasts and paints the wood to exaggerate further the grain and texture. Ironically, these highly worked pieces of wood are then stacked into configurations that look as though found in the natural landscape. The rust-colored mottled surfaces of this sculpture relate directly to Peterson's description of the work as continuing organic abstraction and a sense of landscape. The sculpture evokes a decaying fragment of a red madrone tree.