Finding creative inspiration in the everyday routines is a rare gift. For five consecutive years, Montana resident Gary Tallman has created intricately detailed mosaics out of chopped firewood, also referred to as cordwood. Each design takes more than 20 hours of labor to construct, not counting the initial design and sorting of the wood by color. The variety of colors and shades that naturally occur in the wood grain is phenomenal; in an interview with the Great Falls Tribune, Tallman compares each piece of wood to a pixel in a digital image. By combining different colors of wood, he can create lush shades and textures.
The 82 year old Montana resident manages to keep himself busy with a myriad of projects: from patching the roof of his home to constructing a mile of fence on his property, and even handcrafting 17 wooden flutes. It’s truly incredible that he was able to find the time to construct these beautiful cordwood mosaics.
What’s more, Tallman and his wife, Marilyn, are continually surprised at the amount of attention these mosaics have attracted. Tallman has even turned down a few installation offers stating, “I started building them just because I enjoyed doing it… and to take a picture and send it off to the grandkids.”
