John Buck carves carnival worlds. Press his foot pedal to see heads of famous artists revolve with their
paintbrushes, their dripping watches and their trains coming out of
their foreheads.
Dividing his time between Montana and Hawaii, he favors a fast-growing white wood found in Hawaii and known as
Malaysian jelutong. Similar to cottonwood, jelutong is soft and pliant.
Each of Buck’s rough, chisel cuts eats into the wood and creates small
ripples of disturbance across the surface.
No matter how precise and detailed his carving becomes, it’s never
fussy or anonymous. Evidence of the artist’s hand is always there,
recorded in ragged little stabs.
A survey of his prints (with some paintings) is at the Bellevue Arts Museum, curated by Stefano Catalani from the collection of Portland’s Jordan D. Schnitzer.
Aside from carving, woodcuts are Buck’s strong suit, well represented here. The boldly articulated central figures are surrounded by knotted coils of representation that appear to derive from William T. Wiley. What is comic frenzy in Wiley becomes for Buck a crazy world sealed in a bottle and seen at an austere remove.
Through Feb. 28.
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