Windfall Series No 03

About Windfall Series No 03

Applewood burls from orchards in Prince Edward County, Ontario were collected by master sculptor Shayne Dark to create this unique piece, one of a series.
Historically, local apple farmers were paid by the government to cut down healthy mature apple trees to help control the market for apples. Dark stripped the bark from the remaining dense knotty burls and allowed them to dry for several years. While repairing the cracks in the dried burls, he was reminded of the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery--Kintsugi. Their philosophy views breakage and repair as part of the history of an object. Dark decided not to coat the burls in paint, leaving their natural beauty exposed.

“Experiencing the natural world will often give me a germ of an idea and then I run with it.” Shayne Dark

Inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2018, Dark has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. In 2017, Dark had a solo exhibition and an artist residency at New York’s Brooklyn Botanical Garden. The same year, he had a solo exhibition at the Albright Knox, NY. Dark has received six Ontario Arts Council grants and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. His work may be found in numerous private, corporate and public collections worldwide.