Bennett Ewing Breathes New Life Into Found Driftwood With His Stunning Face Sculptures

Inborn love for nature and affinity for art is a brief yet substantial description of this exciting artist. Bennett Ewing, better known as “Eyevan Tumbleweed,” is 35 years old from Massachusetts, where he studied art and writing, now living in California, but has actually been in constant motion and search for a natural beauty and wildness as a source of inspiration, expressing himself in various creative mediums for over 20 years.

At the turn of the century, Eyevan found his niche medium in found wood sculpture. Since then he has spent the majority of his artistic focus on an ongoing series of visages comprised from pieces of wood he collects from mountains, deserts, swamps, riparian zones (rivers), forests and beaches. Past works have featured weathered woods gathered along his travels from close to 40 U.S. States, Mexico, Canada and Ireland.

In his work he is using the natural colors, patterns and directions of various wood fragments to create countenances not entirely human nor entirely elvin or fay. The sylvan entities and their expressions of thought and emotion portray a glimpse of an otherworldly realm that is not altogether unfamiliar.

His technique ranges from smooth and spiralling to rough and jagged, blending fantasy with reality and impressionism with ornate design. What makes work of this artist so special is that Eyevan cannot simply buy more materials at the art supply store. Instead, he always has an excuse to explore nature, in search of the wood pieces to larger unknown puzzles.

Check out in the gallery below this exciting artist’s work inspired by nature and learn what he said about the inspiration for the wooden faces sculptures when talking to the Awesome Daily.

” I believe the results of my art are really the results of my life in a grander sense; had I not gone to the places I did for whatever reasons, the pieces of wood I happened to see and collect would probably never be side by side, let alone integrated together in a piece of art. I also marvel at the mystery of where driftwood found ashore might have come from. I often wonder how old the tree was, how and when the piece of wood detached from where it started and how long it has been drifting and eroding.

Undoubtedly some of the wood I find has been around for quite some time; much longer than a human lifespan. Each piece of wood I find on the shores of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans has likely had its own journey and I find that particularly fascinating to think about.

For me, looking for wood is a near constant process. I spend a lot of my time scouring the ground appreciating the aesthetics of what most people would take for granted or scarcely notice. I enjoy gathering the pieces from which my works are constructed as much as I enjoy putting them together. Not knowing what I will find on my hunts for materials is one of the things that keeps my process so exciting. ” 

More info: website | Instagram | All photos by Daniel Blue Photography

“My primary focus with the medium has been to create a series of relief faces from non-carved, naturally colored wood that I collect myself from nature’s various regions.”

 

“I consider what I’ve been doing with the faces as an adult to be the recreation of my childhood experience perceiving nature spirits in the woods.”

“I truly believed I was privy to extraordinary beings who were able to show themselves through the various forms of nature.”

“It was later explained to me that my artistic mind probably had an advanced case of pareidolia; the phenomenon of seeing faces in things that are not”

“The face and all it can communicate has always fascinated me as an artist and has been a subject I have stayed focused on throughout my lifelong artistic career.”

“The wilderness has always been my main source of inspiration and the importance of my connectivity to the earth and its magic is alluded to in my art.”

“We come from nature and I consider my art to be a sort of raw testament to that.”

“People often ask how much time goes into the composition of a sculpture and the answer is that each one differs.”

 “I often get 80% of a work completed and then have to wait years to find the appropriate pieces of wood to continue or resolve an area to my satisfaction.”

“Although I am always learning new tricks I have not exceeded 5 finished works within one year.”