July 13, 2026

Q- Can you introduce yourself, and what you do for work?

Adam:

My name is Adam. I'm a wood sculptor based out of New Germany, Nova Scotia, and I use my local forest as inspiration to create unique wooden sculptures that are crafted from rotten wood I find in the ground, scraps from other woodworkers, and just kind of showcasing the little creatures of the forest.

Q- How would you describe the kind of practice and relationship  you've built with your work?

Adam:

My practice is all about telling stories. So whether that's the stories of the creatures I'm making, the subjects, but also the stories of the wood itself. So using the character, the individual, unique parts of the wood that I find to help tell the story within my art. Whether that be the kind of the swirls that go through it, the history within the rings of the tree, I try to use it all.

Q- How do you find these unique pieces of wood?

Adam:

I find my wood from either stumbling upon it on the ground – storm fallen wood. I will go to hardwood stores and look through their scrap wood piles. I have plenty of friends or other people that know me that if they have a tree fall down or they have scraps lying around. It's all kinds of reused repurposed material that I try to use.

Q- What gives a piece of wood character?

Adam:

I think when you talk about character within wood, there's lots of different qualities you can look at. I mean, obviously, the first thing we think of is the aesthetic value and the color or, you know, the tone, the individual swirls that can move through it or say the figuring, iridescent qualities. But really, you know, it can be the strength of the wood.

It can be just the unique way it twists and winds. To me, the character is really how that wood interacted with the environment around it and how that, not just the province or the country, but that individual area influenced the growth of that. And that's what I would consider the character.

Q- What value can you bring out of the wood?

Adam:

I think when we talk about our local woods, especially, is showing what's there. I think that's the biggest thing. When we see it on the ground, we just see this kind of brown lump. That's, you know, nothing special or you see it every day.

But when you take that and you put your kind of, you know, your blood, sweat and tears into it, you put that effort into it. You can finish it to a point where somebody looks at it like I would a jewel, because that's what it is. It just needs to be shown in the right way.

I can take one of the most expensive woods in the world, finish it poorly, and it'll look just like that lump of wood on the ground. So I think that's the biggest thing as a crafts person, is trying to show people what's underappreciated. Like this is this is here. This is beneath your feet.

Q- How do your ecological observations come up in your work?

Adam:

I try to express my ecological observations, whether through my subject matter. For example, how an insect would interact with another insect, like how a colony of ants would interact together and their body movements and positioning. Or it could be how plants sway in the wind. You know, there's lots of different ways to show that. 

But I think ultimately, again, the wood itself can show that, because we look at, for example, I have pieces where you can see fungal growth through the wood. So what you're showing there is the local ecology through color representation. You might just see it as black streaks, but what you're seeing is you're seeing ecology. You're seeing the environment in action. You're seeing an ecosystem, a micro ecosystem, really, because we're not even talking about on a macro scale here. We're talking about individual organisms, you know, and a lot of times beneficial. I think there's so many ways that I try to integrate so many different ways, so many different layers into my work. So the more you look at it, the more you find.

Q- What draws people to your work, and connects them to it?

Adam:

I think that's I think all my work kind of draws people in from that childlike appreciation for the forest. I see it in people's eyes and I really love it. They see like my wooden lady slipper and they just turn into that kid again that saw a lady slipper for the first time. 

And I think that it's the same as when they see the tones of the wood and the tree rings. It really brings them back to that kind of childlike joy and appreciation for the forest. Because, as we grow up, we start to see the forest as more of a commodity and less so as an organism or as something we should be. So it'd be like, I can't believe this exists and how gorgeous it is. I really think that my work really encapsulates that feeling.

Q- Has seeing people experience that through your work, changed how you think about industrial forestry and forest loss in Nova Scotia?

Adam:

I think being in kind of a forest, adjacent industry, being a woodworker, most woodworkers I know value wood greatly. You know, it's something we love. We look at the art as the wood itself as a piece of art. 

It's hard to see industry take wood on a kind of mass volume scale, where not a single person is even looking at the character of the wood to see if it even has extra value. It's just thrown in the fire or, you know, turned into a plank. I think there's definitely a bit of, ‘I would love to see more people have appreciation within the industry.’

And I think there would be a benefit for that as well.

Q- Can you talk a little bit more about what that benefit would look like?

Adam:

I think when you talk about benefits of paying attention to the character of the wood, you're adding value-added to just something that would normally be a volume based commodity. All of a sudden, that one board is worth just as much as, you know, a huge volume that you would have to process. So there is definitely a business case in there for more value added production in terms of looking for more rare woods, more specialty figured woods, but also in terms of drying and processing.

You know, we don't really have a lot of hardwood. Specialty hardwood places have to import, because we don't produce our own. So it seems kind of odd that we have such an abundance of beautiful wood here. We have the industry, but nobody's kind of put those two things together.

Q- When did this move from a creative practice, to something that could support you financially?

Adam:

I spent probably three or four years just doing this as a hobby. And very quickly, I mean, I was very obsessed with it. So I practiced a lot and did a lot of work.

But, you know, it was a few years of just kind of showing my work and seeing that people really appreciated my kind of take on wood and what woodworking could be. And once I saw that, I saw that there are people who appreciate wood. And I think it's coming back now more so.

You know, we all grew up with things like yellow pine panel cupboards and things that people didn't really like. But now people are getting more into appreciating unique things. And so things like my art are part of that.

It's part of making your home feel like home. So I've been extremely fortunate to have people love the things that I love. You know, I'm just carving what I love and what I think is special.

So I've just been really lucky that this has kind of become a thing for me that I can make a living out of. But it really all comes from the people around me who appreciate what I do. They appreciate the creatures, the little creatures, and they appreciate the wood.

Q- What role does collaboration play in your work?

Adam:

Collaboration is key. I think it's key for me, not only just for business, but for creativity. I think it's important for artists to collaborate with each other and see things from different viewpoints, different perspectives.

But also collaboration brings community.. I have lots of different communities that I work with, not just local, but I'm part of the oddities show community. So I collaborate often with people from that community and it brings me closer with them, with people from my local farm market. And that brings me closer to that community. So I think it's key for not just artists to collaborate with other artists, but to collaborate with just everyday folks from their community. 

Oftentimes, especially in rural Nova Scotia, we're separated by vast distances. And you can have someone who is a great craftsperson just down the road from you and you've never met them. So I think there is definitely a need to be able to bring everyday folks together with craftspeople and artisans and industry folk and get everybody together because we all appreciate the same thing. We're all on the same page, but we need more connection.

Q- Do you feel like craftspeople, artists, and other small creative forest-adjacent businesses are recognized as part of the forest economy in Nova Scotia?

Adam:

I think it's always going to be hard for small producers of any kind to be recognized in a [forestry] industry that's so massive and so important. Whether you look at agriculture or fisheries or any major industry in Nova Scotia, is that small producers often do get dwarfed by the big producers. But ultimately that's more on a provincial scale. Within the community scale, I'm most definitely recognized.

I'm recognized for bringing notoriety to the region, but I'm also recognized for appreciating the things that other people love here. And ultimately, you know, I'm going away and I'm selling art and I'm bringing that money into my local community. I'm spending it here.

I sell works from all over North America, so whether I'm going to Toronto or I'm selling a piece to someone in California, it really doesn't matter. That money is coming back into my local community. So I think that that's recognized by the locals and of course the artistic value, the cultural value of it. So I feel like maybe the industry doesn't recognize it, but everybody else does.

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Q- Do you feel like you're well supported in your business in Nova Scotia? Is there something that our government could be doing better to support your kind of work and uplift it even more?

Adam:

I personally feel supported by my community. I receive funding to be able to travel. Obviously arts funding is key, it is an essential part of culture. But back to business again, I'm receiving funding, but I'm bringing back that tenfold into the province. And that's besides the cultural aspect of it. So although I feel supported, I would like to see more support for bringing people together.

I'd like to see the province focus on instead of trying to alienate groups, to bring us together. And why can't working class folks and artists and industry all kind of get on the same page? You know, so that's where I think I would like to see more support is community events. Bringing artists together with people from industry, with, you know, activities for kids and things like, you know, like a Christmas tree festival. Just something that brings people together, you know.

I spend all, you know, lots of my time at farm markets and I sell things for five, ten dollars for what's accessible to everybody because I want my art to be accessible. I want it to be for working class people, too, because that's how I grew up. But I think it's with that when there's a distance between those two groups, sometimes there can be resentment that forms. 

But you bring people together and that all just kind of disappears. So I think, personally, I would rather see the government spend thousands on creating an event to bring people together than on something like an installation that might be up for a couple of months, even though it's great and it's culturally important. I think at this moment in time, it's more important to bring people together

I think that will give us better results for everybody, for the arts community. I mean, we need that, too. I mean, a lot of a lot of working class people don't understand what arts funding is or how it works. They're just like, you're just giving money to artists, for free. But then they don't see me, like yes, I'm receiving a very small amount of money to help, but then I'm bringing in all this money. 

I'm representing this local community across Canada, across people who have never heard of this. I have people who travel to this region to come see my art. I had a couple who came here on their honeymoon. They decided to come to Nova Scotia, because part of it was picking up a piece of art that they had bought.

Q- How important is your relationship to our forests and to your work?

Adam:

Well, without our forest, I wouldn't have work. I mean, I can really put it down to that. It's just that simple.

Without the complexity and the intricacy of our forests, what would I have to carve? Not just material, but subject matter. You know, it's so important to show not only what's growing here, but that wood itself, because it's the history of this place.

It's the observer. The trees are the observer of our land within those tree rings. It was a good summer. It was a bad summer this year. It was a wet summer because the rings thicker. The tree watched it all happen. It's it's like a living record. So I think we need to have that appreciation for the forest as an entity and not just as a volume based commodity.

I think when it comes to trees, what makes them special is on the inside. But, you know, we often think of the tree as the bark, the wood, the branches, the leaves. But then we forget that there's an entire ecosystem for miles below our feet.

So there's so much intricacy and complexity to everything going on other than just the tree that we harvest. You know, so I think that's what I love about doing this is like we can just talk for days about mycelial networks and insects. The importance that there's more biomass of ants on the planet than anything else. There's more species of beetles than there are plants – it's something like 60,000 species of beetles.

So that's what I mean is that there's a depth there that I try to show as much as I can to people. And with talking in these kinds of conversations. That's how you do it. You know, it's kind of like that grassroots. I can't change the system, but I can just keep talking until maybe someone listens.

Q - How do you hope your art brings awareness to the forest?

Adam:

Like it's a childhood thing. The first time you saw this thing in the forest, it's like, you know, and that gasp, you know, and I have that happen.

Some people see my work, especially if it's something that has significant meaning to them. That's what I want my work to have. Is that feeling where people are kind of taken aback and not just by the beauty of it, but just it's like a memory. Like a living memory. And I think that's what's important in art. You're allowed to enjoy something so much. It just makes you smile and giddy, that's what I want people to have. And I think that to me personally is a great way to focus on raising awareness.

Oftentimes we raise awareness by doom, which we have to, we have to be realistic about those things. But at the same time, reminding people of that childhood joy. So they come back to that and they lose that kind of worry. I hope my art brings that back a bit and just makes people care. I guess it's maybe just another way of looking at it.