Rachael Bruton Haisell - Review of Brian's Sculptures, June 2023

Brian James Wark is the Wood Whisperer

While Brian walks the west coast beaches, the wind swept wood whispers their story and Brian listens.  As Brian picks up each complex piece of wood they share their ancient stories, their names.  He knows their language and promises to make their lore know again. He tells us their stories, breathing them back to life with oils and rich paints that bring brilliance once again to the details scripted on their weathered skin.  Brian gives them vision as he paints in their knotted eyes, spreads and guilds feathers on hidden wings, burns depth into their souls and giving their long-silenced limbs momentum, dance and desire. 

I couldn’t simply walk by Brian’s sculptures.  Each piece is a portal that beckons you to journey and open up your own third eye to awaken your own creative child that wants to play and free your own adventurous imagination.

I wanted time to play in this playground, this mystical other world of animals, lovers, tribes and cultures that spun their stories through my mind.  I hope Brian can teach us the language of wood whispering and show us how to ignite the life force in drifted wood and our own drifted lives.

- Rachael Bruton Haisell