Lucus MacDonald
After 15 years as a musician Lucus Macdonald moved from the big city to his rural childhood home on Prince Edward Island. There, in the presence of his father’s wood shop he shifted his focus to a more tangible art form. A self taught woodcarver, MacDonald artistic practice revolves around the intricate patterns time creates. Each line in his work represents the event of its own creation, each stroke of the chisel a document of time imprinted on a carved memory.
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Drawn to the geometry of earthly landscapes and the orbits of astral bodies he began to translate these images into wood carvings. Using only hand tools, he conveys with repetitive patterns the radiance of energy that reflects and illuminates life. Working from his own studio out of an old barn, MacDonald continued development of his relationship with woodcraft and perception of the natural world invites the viewer to perceive the carved form beyond what is in front of their eyes.
Humans are pattern seekers. It makes traversing life easier if we’re able to predict what’s coming. We’re drawn to patterns for safety, and so patterns have become a comforting sight. MacDonald grew particularly interested in the patterns that water creates. Rain drops in a puddle, light refracting through a glass of water, or the shimmering light off the surface of water on a sunny day. There’s so much information packed into these fleeting moments.With the aim to capture the liminal beauty hidden in these transient moments that catch us off-guard he attempts to document these ephemeral events that are easily missed in our typically humdrum lives.
MacDonald has been part of several exhibitions and his work can be found in private collections such as the Innovation PEI Arts Awards (2023), Prince Edward Island Art Bank Collection (2019).
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