Nature, shapework in the collector’s eye

Science and art tied together in local artist’s work

By Kate Hayden

khayden@charlescitypress.com

Artist Dennis Petersen is a born collector. Not just a casual collector: Petersen has wood scraps from all the way back to seventh grade –– years before he entered the University of Northern Iowa on a full-ride biology scholarship, and years before he entered a career as an elementary and middle school art teacher. He saves scraps of wood, acorns, buckeyes, bark –– anything to inspire texture and motion in his newest work.

“Art and science, to me, are like siamese twins. They’re joined at the mind,” Petersen said. “Artists imagine things and then scientists create and invent, and it’s back and forth.”

That’s the kind of conversation Petersen creates with his hanging sculptures: an exploration into the natural world that many people overlook on a daily basis. Pieces that biology invents, and Petersen shifts and fits together. He made his first few pieces after he retired as a teacher in 2000, which resembled dual-toned shadow boxes with pieces of sticks and nature fitting inside. He didn’t date his first piece, so it’s only a guess as to when he first began.

That’s the other thing about Petersen: although his niche seems like it would be limited, his pieces follow a natural evolution as he explores ideas and materials. He calls it “abstract intarsia”, a type of woodworking that typically depicts recognizable landscapes or profiles.

“I never displayed these, or showed these or did anything with them. I just (made) them for my own enjoyment,” Petersen said.

That changed when former Charles City Arts Center director Nicole Phend convinced Petersen to set up a stand at the annual Art-A-Fest five years ago. Petersen considered it, set up shop in Central Park and sold out of everything he had brought by the end of the day. Since then, Petersen has shown his work at three festivals each year, and this past summer was awarded second place overall by judges at Art-A-Fest.

“The judge asked me about the process of the idea and then working, where do I get these shapes?” Petersen said. “When I’m sawing a piece of wood, I’m more concerned with the rhythm and the movement then the final product. It’s the process, and then I take these pieces and I play with them until I like what I see. That process remains flexible, even though the material is pretty solid.”

That’s the process that builds his constant evolution of ideas and perspectives. There was the phase when he worked to illustrate one word ideas: “Conflict” became a series of sticks and pieces that appeared to smash together within the piece. A woman immediately bought the piece up at a festival, Petersen said, because it reminded her of her marriage and subsequent divorce.

It’s also an evolution based on the materials available to him. His daughter had for years wondered why no one gave Petersen boxes of wood for Christmas, and finally went for it –– gifting him scores of molding, scrap wood and other natural materials Petersen utilizes.  Lately, pieces of molding laid on edge have framed and created his latest series, which he finishes off with a dark grout between the wood pieces to contrast against the color and shapes.

“I get different ideas, different themes, different materials. It keeps evolving, changing. That’s one of the things I like. I haven’t reached the limit yet,” Petersen said.

“I find it very hard to repeat because I may have only had that piece of wood, one piece of wood or one, like these are buckeyes ––” Petersen reaches over to one of his first pieces “–– and they may be the only two buckeyes I had. I kind of react to the materials I have.”