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J.B. (James Blain) Blunk, 1926 - 2002

I began making wood sculpture in 1962. I knew how to use a chain saw and it was one of those things. One day you just start.

A master of the chain saw, J.B. Blunk used massive redwood trunks, burled stumps and other enormous pieces of wood to create some of the most distinctive furniture, sculptures, installations, and "environments" representative of the California counterculture in the 1960's and later.

Born in the Midwest, Blunk attended UCLA, where he studied with the ceramist Laura Andreson (1902-1999). After graduation in 1949, he entered the army and served in the Korean War. At the conclusion of his service, he was discharged to Japan where he met the sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) – an encounter that led to apprenticeships with the famous Japanese potters Rosanjin Kitaoji (1883-1959) and Toyo Kaneshige (1896-1967).

After returning to America in 1954, Blunk spent his career in Northern California, living for much of his life in a home he built in Inverness. Although he is best known for sculpture and furniture, his work included ceramics, jewelry, painting and large sculptures in bronze and stone.

I like to think that the courage and independence J.B. has shown is typically California, or at least Western, with a continent between to be free from categories that are called art. Here the links seem to me more to the open sky and spaces, and the far reaches of time from where comes the burled stumps of those great trees.

J.B. does them honor in carving them as he does, finding true art in the working, allowing their ponderous bulk, waking them from their long sleep to become part of our own life and times, sharing with us the afterglow of a land that was once here.

If you are interested in selling or buying work of J.B. Blunk or need an authentication, please contact the Director of the J.B. Blunk Estate, Mariah Nielson at liamg@noslein.hairam.com