If there is one thing that we have in abundance here in Golden, it’s trees. Just look out your window and you can’t miss them. In my own yard there are about a dozen of them growing and the pine forests starting just to the west of us don’t stop until you cross the entire Rocky Mountain range.

Of course, where there are trees, there is wood, and where there is wood, there is someone making a work of art out of it. Wood was probably one of the first objects used for arts and crafts and remains popular and highly prized today.

Here in Colorado, we have a lot of artists that choose wood as their media and make some great traditional woodworking art as well as utilizing some rather unconventional concepts to be creative.

The Foothills Art Center will be presenting a terrific show entitled Splinter! Colorado Wood Today. It opens Friday, March 29, and runs through Sunday, May 18.

The show will feature 15 exhibition artists that all have their unique style and signature on how they use wood in their creations. There is an amazing variety of ways that artists have found to use wood. Some of them carve it, others use a lathe and turn it into things like goblets. There are those who cut, hammer and glue it together to make sculptures and others who paint on it like a canvas. Then there are those who combine several of these techniques together to create something truly unusual. Even staining wood to bring out the grain and textures is an art in itself. I have seen some really beautiful wood work at the Foothills Art Center over the years and even own a few pieces that I purchased there. They have some very talented people in this show and I highly recommend that you go check it out.

“Splinter! Colorado Wood Today” will be held in the main exhibition area of the center. The hours it is open are Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays noon to 5 p.m. with the gallery being closed on Mondays.

Admission is $5 for Adults, $3 for Seniors (65-plus) and free for Members, Youth and Students with ID. Now, during the course of this exhibit there will be a SCFD sponsored free day on Wednesday, April 23, and from 10:30 a.m. to noon there will be a special self-directed educational activity related to the show for families to enjoy together.

Also, if you are really interested in finding out more about working with wood as an art form there will be a special panel discussion entitled Mastering the Media: New Possibilities in Wood. Artists Carley Warren, Susan Cooper, Patrick Marold and Keith Gotschall will be there to talk about their work and techniques. That will be held on Saturday, April 4 from 2-4 p.m. and they ask if you plan to attend that you RSVP so they can plan accordingly.

The Foothills Art Center is located at 809 15th Street here in Golden. You can find out more about this exhibit by going to their website at www.foothillsartcenter.org. You can also call them for information as well as to RSVP for the panel discussion at 303-279-3922.

Who knows? Seeing this show might inspire you to start making something creative and decorative out of wood yourself. If so, well then get in touch with me, because I have a lot of tree limbs and other wooden debris that fell off during the winter storms and quite frankly, I’m not too motivated to get out there and cut them up yet. I may have your next art project just sitting here waiting for you to come and pick it up!