Public Art

I wonder if there are any hidden artists amongst the farmers who live in my area?  I immediately think, “not likely”  but artists come in all shapes and forms, don’t they?  Quiet, unassuming Roger is an unlikely artist but his creations are indeed beautiful works of art.  

You’ll find his factory in the industrial area of Ruakaka, not far from his playground, the surf beach.  The sign pointing the way, is hardly artistic.

If you’ve been reading my blog lately you will know Roger is the boss artist at Surfline Surfboards.  And if you’ve never thought of surfboards as works of art, you’ve never seen a Roger Hall surfboard.

He has recently crafted a beautiful long board from cabbage tree wood (in the U.K. they are known as Torquay Palm).  I always thought of cabbage tree as being extremely fire-resistant and that their leaves make good fire kindling.  I remember that because they seem to prefer to grow in swampy land.  Doesn’t make sense, does it, that’s why I remember it!  Early settlers brewed beer from the root, too.  Strange the things you remember.  Maori used the cabbage tree for all sorts of things – food, fibre and medicine (to cure diarrhoea and dysentery) and the leaves were woven into baskets, sandals, rope and rain capes.

But I’d never imagined you could use the wood to make a surfboard.  And what work of art it is!

Here it is in various stages of creation (thanks for the photos, Roger):

What they call the ugly stage and a lot of work went into getting it to this stage

     getting there

looking good

and still it's not finished!
More loving care will go into it before it is ready for the public to witness this artwork.

So, next time you are on a surf beach keep an eye out for the public art, right there in the surfboards.

Generally I like public art to be a little quirky, made of unexpected materials, like this:

Or the public toilets at Kawakawa:

Or these:


I appreciate when others make an effort to add an artistic touch where it is least expected, like at our local garbage dump:


The craftsmanship of Maori carving is always wonderful to see.  This fierce looking chap repeats all along the side of a Maori war canoe:

So, that’s it for this week’s FSO on Public Art.

I'll be scheduling this post to appear on my blog on Friday as my friend, Chris, and I are off gallivanting (love that word).  We are heading north armed with cameras to see what we can find in the way of old churches.   Maybe any old buildings, who knows!  Oh, and probably we will be on the look out for rocks for next week’s topic.  Don’t know where we will be staying, we will let what we find dictate the schedule.

Thanks, Doreen, for doing the link for me.

Why not pop over to here to see what public art the rest of the team has found.
 
Thanks to Barry (the King of Bloggers) and his lovely wife, Linda for this week’s topic.  I enjoyed it.  (And I hope you are feeling better, Barry!)