Seattle Sticks

My friends Doug and Rachel in Seattle have a wonderful collection of my tobacco sticks full of variety.

Three painted, one raw.

Artifact to art, these purest tools of practical farming were no longer being used, stacked and under years of dust when I found them. I saw them as individual solid canvas. Slender marvels. Scepter, sword, sliver of aesthetic joy… evocative to say the least.

With an average size of 52″ x 1″ square and varying wood types, they average 1-3 pounds.

They won an NYC Fine ArtsCraft Festival award the first year they were introduced. No one had ever seen a painted tobacco stick before.