Willard Stone: Storyteller in Wood

Willard Stone let his philosophy on life come alive through his carvings. He once said, "Life is much like sculpting in wood - you have to follow the grain." The grain of Willard Stone's life (1916-1985) was altered by a childhood accident that destroyed part of his right hand and, along with it, his dream of becoming a painter. But it did not destroy his desire or his genuis for art. When he had recovered sufficiently in body and in spirit, he began to mold figures in clay scooped from the Oklahoma earth. Later he settled on wood as the material he would spend his life transforming into elegant and powerful carved sculptures. This presentation features many of Stone's sublimely carved works created when he spent a three year artist-in-residence program with Thomas Gilcrease.