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Philip Marshall

What: First Friday exhibits

When: 5-8 p.m. tonight at most locations

Where: Various local galleries and businesses

Admission: Free. See "What's Happening" on page 4 for listings.

Wood carver Philip Marshall sees more in the raw materials of the forest than simply wood, and he’s always on the lookout for stumps and branches that could work for his projects.

“I go out there and I’m looking for curved-figured material, a lot of times with a utilitarian purpose in mind, say for furniture or fixtures for furniture. But then I can be struck with things that are pretty much going to be totally nonfunctional, but a pure art form,” Marshall said. “A lot of it is about being really open to both of those aspects.”

Marshall’s work will be on display at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, with a First Friday opening reception tonight.

“The theme is ‘Treasures from the Forest,’ so they’re pretty much rustic materials that are being shaped or decorated to be either sculptural or decorative, and then there’s also the utilitarian aspect,” he said. “There will be a clothes stand made from a debarked branch trunk that goes into a stump base, and there will also be some unique chairs that are based upon using fire-killed stumps.”

A former engineering geologist and junior high school math and science teacher, Marshall now carves wood full time at his studio, called Polhavn Woodfabrik and located just outside Fairbanks. His art show will feature pieces from his home collection and others that are being borrowed back from their new owners. His work includes folkcraft, furniture, housewares and sculptures.

“These are pieces that have been made over the last 10 years or so. They’ve stayed in town, and I’ve been able to contact the owners for many of the pieces,” he said. “It allows for me to have a themed show — these pieces that are all rustic-elements-based — and to be sort of a retrospective.”

Because the pieces are already in the hands of owners, nothing at the show will be for sale, but it will give folks who are interested in his work a look at what can be done with local materials.

“I do tend to use the local tree species here, so that’s beneficial because several of those species aren’t harvested commercially and could really be considered trash species, like aspen, willow, alder and larch,” he said.

The Alaska Public Lands center, always searching for artists with relationships to the Alaska environment, asked him to display his work at the upcoming show. His work uses forest products while doing it on a sustainable basis.

“I’m gathering up what a lot of people would consider trash from our local forest,” said Marshall. “It’s either slash or it has been burned by forest fires. I have such a minimal impact.”

Marshall began carving as a novice after an inspiring visit to Jack Portice’s gallery of handcarved bristlecone pine pieces in Fairplay, Colo. in 1989. His wife, Jan, gave him his first set of woodcarving tools.

Throughout the years, he’s taken courses in Austria and Norway and studied in the U.S. with German and Italian carvers.

“I tend to concentrate in European wood carving,” Marshall said. “There’s not a whole lot of awareness of it here, so that’s why I sort of have to branch out.”

He creates both indoor and outdoor pieces, some that are 100 percent raw materials and others with manmade parts.

“It varies from what I find when I’m working with a piece and how integral and intact it is,” he said. “Sometimes I do make it a personal challenge to make a piece that’s all wood construction, then it would be mortise and tenon joints, but other ones may have metal fasteners that may or may not be visible.”

Each piece is sanded and smoothed with two or three coats of finish on top. Some of the pieces bring even more life from the outdoors, with textures from moose or beaver gnawings.

“I’ve also incorporated pieces that have woodpecker or squirrel holes in them, and some of the pieces have been around and exposed for a long time can grow their own lichens and fungi,” he said. “Sometimes it may not be obvious, but you can find it if you hunt for it.”

In addition to his own woodworking, he’ll co-teach a summer course at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with master woodworker John Manthei.

“We’ll be leading a field collection for one day and then leading workshops for two days to help people create their own rustic treasures,” he said.

Marshall hopes the Alaska Public Lands exhibit will bring more awareness to his work, and maybe spark interest in other would-be woodcarvers.

“I hope people can also become a bit more aware of the wonderful artistic pieces that are out there in their boreal forest quarries,” he said.