Hidden Nature Wood and Stone art exhibit and sale showcases the natural world’s power, resilience, and mystery
Showcasing the beauty of California’s natural lands, Arnie Rudman’s wood and stone exhibit and sale at the Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center is a display of new life for weathered stone and reclaimed wood.
Running July 3-28, Rudman’s art gallery is a beautiful blend of unique stone and woodworks made from a variety of different carving and crafting practices. His work combines materials retaining their natural textures and characteristics with finely crafted and polished stone and wood, creating unique bowls, vases, sculptures, and more.
Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center Store and Events Manager Sophia Wong hosted the Meet the Artist reception and said guests were astounded by Rudman’s work. Rudman’s exhibit is the center’s first-ever wood and stone carving exhibit and Wong was excited to showcase the local artist’s work.
“Our guests have been very impressed with the exhibit and I’ve been hearing ‘I’ve never seen something quite like this, I’ve never seen anything like this wood!’” Wong said.
Rudman began creating stone sculptures over 20 years ago, finding inspiration from sculptors he met in Italy. Rudmanreturned to Southern California where he began to create his own alabaster sculptures based out of Art City Studios in Ventura.
Rudman, a now-retired dentist, called his passion for stone sculpting a “natural progression” from the small-scale sculpting he’d practiced in his dentistry.
“Depending on the look, colors, and shapes of a stone, I would take it home and begin to work on them with grinding tools, getting them in to shape, making them finer and finer and in the end I would find myself using my dental tools,” Rudman said.
Over the next decade, Rudman became very skilled in sculpting with stone-like marble, alabaster, calcite, and other stones and soon was invited to a meeting of wood carvers in Oxnard. He developed skills in a new sculpting process involving knives on smaller materials.
Rudman sought his next challenge, doing wood turning, a process of shaping wood using a lathe. This desire to continue to hone his skills led him to a class in Provo, Utah.
“I loved it. I came home immediately and ordered my own lathe,” Rudman explained, “I found that there was a moreimmediate gratification with wood turning. With stone sculpting it could take me months to get the object that I’mworking on, whereas wood shapes pretty quickly, within a couple of hours.”
He is now a master sculptor, capable of combining stone sculpting, wood carving, and wood turning into unique pieces, retaining natural shaping, grooves, and pores of wood and stones with finely carved and polished complimentary materials.
Rudman explained that when beginning a piece, often he isn’t certain what the result will be but allows the process to be a natural flow of ideas, allowing for accidents or unforeseen changes in material to be an opportunity for a change in artistic identity.
“Lots of time it’s a living thought as I’m going along. It’s rare that I’ll go from start to finish knowing exactly where I’llend up,” Rudman reflected. “The wood talks to me. I know it could sound corny and a lot of artists use that term, but it really does evolve as I’m working on it.”
Among the beautiful work displayed at the Visitor Center is a collection of work incorporating wood from the 2017 Thomas Fire. Rudman breathes new life into the singed, scorched, and blackened wood, bringing out the beautifulreddish, amber hue of it, making this work stand apart from other pieces in the gallery. Among this collection is a beautiful open-cut vase with sculpted maple leaves dancing along the sides, as well as a sculpture of a pouring water pitcher, a combination of stone and wood.
A standout among the collection is two very realistic, finely cut and polished cowboy hats that hung from a wooden stand. Wong said she has received the most comments regarding the hats.
“People really are astounded by the hats, they believe they’re real hats. People keep saying ‘I’ve never seen anything like this wood!’” Wong said.
Wong explained that she has struggled to select her favorite piece of the gallery because so many stand out to her.
“His work is exquisite and it’s very, very detailed,” she said. “Our guests admire the detail that he puts into his work. It’s true art, museum quality work.”
Rudman’s Hidden Nature of Wood and Stone art exhibit and sale will continue through July 28 and a portion of the funds from art sales will be used to support art and cultural programs in the park. For more information please contact samo@wnpa.org.