The graceful spiral of a Stevens sculpture is signature. Like the arms in a whirling galaxy, radiating ridges expand in sweeping lines from a center point. The form echoes the wood’s intricate universe of whorls and undulating grain. Using ancient wood and burl harvested from his own land, Stevens carves sculptures as suggestive of the infinite as nature itself.

Gary Stevens lives with his wife and children among the redwoods in California’s Santa Cruz mountains. He is a self-taught artist who comes to his art through a lifelong love for wood. Using knowledge acquired through years as a builder, he has developed his own methods, techniques and tools

The work is extremely physical. First there is the gathering of wood, pieces of which can weigh 700 pounds. Then there is the hoisting and the trimming with chain saws. Then the actual sculpting begins. Chainsaws are followed by grinders and hand sanding. Some pieces are so large that his tall frame is half engulfed when he reaches inside to work the interior. “I carve from the inside out …You only get one shot at this thing. It’s about the art of removal. What you take out you can never get back.” Then the exterior is carefully carved and shaped, sanded and refined.

Living in the heart of the mountains, Gary selects and harvests 90% of his wood from his own property. With wheel barrow and chainsaw, he collects the century old stumps and fallen logs from the forest floor. He extracts the sometimes enormous burls from the ground himself, chunk by chunk, in pieces large enough to suit his taste for scale. Once begun, it might take a full year to complete a piece. It is no wonder that Stevens is regarded as one of the major figures in the contemporary wood movement.

Stevens’ works are held in the collections of several prestigious American museums including the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Honolulu.