Jan 6, 2008

Man finds artistic inspiration in woodBy Peggy UsseryDothanEagle.com

Most people throw tree limbs to the curb to be hauled to a landfill or reduce them to ashes in a burn pile.

But those same old tree limbs inspire Kirt Dunlap. By the time he’s done with them, they’re curved and knotty pieces of art.

“I just try to highlight what nature has done to them,” the 53-year-old Dothan man said.

Pecan limbs have a pretty color once the bark is stripped away. Chinaberry limbs are hollow. Oak is plentiful in this area, and the bark comes off easily. Crepe myrtle limbs have a nice pale color.

Dunlap has been creating his sticks of art for eight years. Until recently, he only did them for himself, friends and family or upon request. But Utthera Wimbush — now Dunlap’s agent and designing items for him to create — thought the work should be seen. Dunlap’s work is among items for sale at the Wiregrass Museum of Art’s gift shop.

Some of the designs on the wood staffs are carved; others are painted. But each starts in a similar fashion. Dunlap either recycles limbs from piles cut by homeowners or he finds them in the woods.

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