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c. jack Waller, jr.
C. Jack Waller, Jr. has worked with architectural
design, construction and furniture
making since the late 1960s. He moved to
Montana in 1969 and began “tree working,”
creating works of art using original
tree rather than processed wood. Based out
of Virginia City, Waller works mostly with
contorted lodgepole pine. His art involves
the use of traditional and primitive tools
that he uses to build pieces such as toolboxes,
chairs, tables and other sculptural works. He
describes tree art as “slow, quiet, thoughtful
and very experimental.”
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area,
but I was born in Independence, Missouri. I
moved to California in the late ‘40s. When
I was out in the Bay Area, I worked as a remodeling
contractor and made furniture on
the side, with driftwood.
When I first moved to Montana in 1989, I
lived near Phillipsburg, up by Georgetown
Lake. That’s where I really started working
with trees, making furniture, sculpture, and
architectural details.
I moved to Virginia City in 1995. I like small
town living. My wife, daughter, and I have
an old log home we’ve been working on for
seven years – all kinds of improvements.
I try to use the most unusual trees and those
are usually the contorted lodgepole. Their
shapes, and life stories, fascinate me.
It’s pretty much all hand work, because the
trees are so irregularly shaped, I rarely use
woodworking machines with them. The
processes of selecting trees, joining, and assembling
them into a chair, for example, feel
very sculptural to me.
There are recurring shapes in the pine tree
trunks. I call them motifs, or runes. Certain
shapes lend themselves to use, for example,
as a chair arm, or a table leg.
It’s like I’m collaborating with nature. The
trees have already a big part of the work, so
my job is to preserve and enhance that, and
combine it into a piece of functional art.
I almost always harvest standing dead trees.
They’re already cured, so I can use them
sooner. Every now and then I’ve taken a
truly remarkable living tree, but I feel guilty.
I’m 68 now, so I’ve been working with wood
for over 50 years. It’s been on the job training.
I’ve centered my adult life around poetry,
in the original meaning of the term, which
is making.
Tree art is one of my poetic practices. The
other two are folk music and creative writing.
Artist to me means poet, and poet means
maker,” says Waller. “It’s essential to me to
consider each piece of tree art as a poem.”
jackwallertreeart.com
explorebigsky.com
big sky Weekly
creiGhton block Gallery oPens neW location in biG sky
in addition to its Virginia city location, creighton block Gallery is opening
another gallery in big sky. to kick off the opening, the gallery will host a “meet
the artist” reception featuring “tree artist” c. Jack Waller, Jr. Gallery owners
colin mathews and Paula craver invite the public to join the celebration and
view some of Waller’s unique pieces.
the Gallery’s big sky location will be at 33 lone Peak drive. the event will be
saturday, march 26 from 4-7 p.m., and will feature music, hors d’oeuvres and
refreshments, as well as a presentation by Waller about tree art and his works.
“if there’s one word i would choose to describe myself, it would be poet,”
says Waller. in the show at big sky, that will be an essential part of “meet
the artist” night.
march 18, 2011 37