J CHESTER ARMSTRONG

World renowned wood sculptor

Central Oregon

Born and raised in Berkeley, California, attended U.C. Berkeley in the 1960s and graduated with a degree in poetic theory and philosophy. In the early ’70s, after traveling through Central America and a brief stay in Vermont, Armstrong came north to Oregon looking for “untracked spaces,” where the stars are not drowned out by city lights.

Out of local Oregon woods, out of juniper, maple, pine, and walnut, Armstrong carves the world he sees surrounding him. Eagles, osprey, wolves, cougars, coyotes howling at the moon, herons perched majestically at the river’s edge. It’s all the magic of life.

Wood sculpture, like stone sculpture, is a subtractive process. You take away to reveal the form within. It is arduous and demanding and combines both artistic inspiration and physical perspiration. It is yielding but not forgiving. It does not allow for mistakes. But wood is organic, warm and alive and creates a “one of a kind” piece of art that traces its beginnings back to the living tree blown by the wind and fed by the sun and waters of the earth. Today, more than ever, we need to revere the natural world.

“My wood sculpture is the water that quenches that thirst.” It is the touching and being touched by the spirit of the Earth.

“This is what moves me. This, and the wild herds of mustangs that inhabit the west of my imagination.” He is best known for his horses, thundering herds all moving rhythmically as one.

“I carve to reawaken the soul of the viewer to the primal energy and life force of earth-based imagery. My sculptures move in the rhythm of circles, spirals, and flowing lines dictated as much by the grain lines of the wood itself as by my own sense of the harmony of the natural world.”