Homily Sticks - Alicia Jimbo Collaboration

Not often in a course of a day, week, or year, upon participating in an art fair or event, does one so consistently hear “I have never seen anything like this before!” So it was with Jim’s Homily Sticks and Ponder Panels which, though met with some reserve, garnered enough of an interest from a Snow Bird New Orleans couple at the local BRACA art fair we attended some weeks ago that they purchased three.

Homily Sticks comes from marrying two of Jim’s favourite things: words and wood. His artistic statement regarding this nascent art/craft form follows:

In the course of its tumbling meander toward the sea, the rivers hereabouts cast up a practically limitless amount of cast-off wood, frequently as one sort or another of wooden needle. Beaver-bitten, human-hewn, or merely shaped by calamity and gravity and wind and water and stone into the classic shapes of daggers and handles of one sort or another, these forms are not what most passers-by would consider prepossessing. Often stuck in muck, covered with dirt and detritus, or moldy and buggy on the surface, these examples of nature’s short-swords often appear both common and homely.

Jim Hickey begs to differ. For many decades, he has collected samples of such items. Recently, he has begun to work the wood: cleaning it, sanding it, shaving it, developing the faces of the sticks so as to be more presentable.

He then lets the pieces sit, listening for what each one has to say until a semblance of sense emerges from a piece. After writing down and shaping these words, he burns them into the sticks: inevitably, some element of philosophy, morality, or intellectual investigation is what emerges, since even though he’s listening to the wood, the message is going through the ‘Jimbo Translator,’ which cannot help but bear the imprint of someone in love with words and ideas.

Alicia will often add touches of artistry to the words. Jim provides color and, as a final step, stains and finishes each piece according to what will both enhance and preserve a particular stick.

Although many of the sticks have holes and wire attached, adding potential functionality to the conceptual or aesthetic presence, others are freestanding or appear on finished bases. They all proffer some message—hence the ‘homily’—but mainly they are beautiful, natural sculptures that invite an appreciation for the infinite number of ways that time and tide craft gorgeous material for our contemplation.

We plan to develop this medium further. Meanwhile, Marshall Arts, in whatever form it takes, as well as local fairs and tailgate markets of all stripes in the WNC area will see these sticks come to life. They can also be seen in Marshall Arts’ Etsy store.