Bruce Black Sculptor

BRUCE BLACK
Biography

Bruce Black has become one of Hawaii’s leading sculptors, remarkably skilled at instilling life into pieces of wood.  His love for the sea is evident in his award-winning work.  He carves beauty and life into his works of wood, capturing the perfect pose of dolphins, whales and other sea life in his wood sculpture.

Originally from California, he started carving at the age of 10.  Reflecting back, he admits to being “graced with my father’s hands and my mother’s eye.”  He spent most of his childhood near the beach or on his fathers boat, where he formed a deep affinity with the sea and its creatures.  His works are the result of many childhood memories, as he creates the fluidity of movement of sea animals.

Black studied art in California, with plans originally to become a landscape architect.  These plans changed when he moved to Hawaii in search of its legendary waves, and the islands have been his home ever since.  Having worked as a carpenter he once remarked, “2X4’s, 4X8’s, all this square wood.  Someone should round off these corners!  I took it upon myself to do just that.”  He expresses real love for wood, its density, its texture, and its grain.  Black feels a sense of awe when starting a new creation.  Excitement overcomes him as the sharp blade makes the initial cut, while his hands become the guiding force for the wood.

During the last twenty years, Bruce Black has received many honors and awards for his work.  He won first prize in 1976 and 1982 at Pepperdine College in the annual California Carvers Guild.  He also won first place in sculpture at the “Whale Expo” in 1986 on Oahu.  A year later his entry received another first prize at the Audubon Society’s annual show.  His carvings made of wood certainly reflect the language of the sea.