Derek Weidman has built a visual language out of the circular cuts of a wood lathe. The way the machine shapes wood is unique, providing almost industrial qualities–violent at times in their execution– as they tear fibers and grain of the natural, once living material. The process itself speaks to the heart of the work, finding balances between the man-made and the natural–halting, if just for a moment–the mechanical dominion of Earth, yet not erasing the progress of humanity. Designing a place where things can co-exist, speaking to this particular time on this planet, with remnants of scars on the work, yet something new–something beautiful. A new nature.

About Derek Weidman

Derek Weidman was born in 1982, and has dedicated the last seven years to exploring lathe-based sculpture.  His approach involves multi-axis turning as the foundation of his work.  By using the unique shaping processes of turning, Derek has created a descriptive visual language that only the lathe can speak.  This carving process creates novel representations of a wide range of subjects, from those based on human anatomy to various animal forms.  Derek works from a basic question, “What would this look like if rendered through the lens of a wood lathe?,” and even with the most rigorous naturalism, an honest abstraction takes place, and for each new subject that question gets answered. So from human heads to rhinos, mandrills to birds, each idea being captured in a way it has not been expressed before.