Uncle Pan Wants You!

Juniper wood, Cholla cacti wood, and Black Locust base. Finished with Penofin Verde Rosewood Oil and Odie’s Oil. 2023

I started this piece years ago after finding a piece of juniper that resembled a head and arm. I could see the potential for a sort of half-figurative, half-natural / abstract humanoid figure. I worked on shaping the arm for sometime with a grinder and flap disc and then went out in search of what could be the legs from some nearby junipers with some dead branches. I found what I was looking for with a natural twist that I could shape into a goat-like leg. This is Pan after all, part goat / part man god of the forest!

The next step was joining the torso and legs with a piece of cholla cacti skeleton. This was challenging but I eventually succeeded in getting a strong anchor of the 3 together with finish screws. I knew I wanted to use some of the Black Locust that we cut down earlier in the year for a base. After blasting apart a couple cookies in my neighbor’s planer (not the best idea to try and power-plane end-grain) I cut one more from a log and used the grinder with a wood cutting disc to get it as flat as possible. I then meticulously sanded the top, epoxied the void in the center and sanded it again. Both the Juniper and Black Locust take a good deal of time to fully sand.

The statue of Pan is held onto the base by two steel pins. This project would have probably taken a few more years to complete but I was excited to get it done for the Art Walk Santa Fe on Dec. 2nd at the Santa Fe Brewing Co Mothership. It has since sold to a art collector in Pojoaque, NM. It was a joy to make and I hope you like it too!