FLITCH

The Concept Behind The “Flitch”

By Nelson Parrish

One of the consistent shapes in my sculpture practice came to me while hunting for venues that fit my budget for my wedding. Almost ten years ago, my wife and I got married on the Gaviota coast, up in the hills, overlooking the Pacific, underneath one of the oldest oaks in Southern California. Not going to lie, it was beyond picturesque.

But at the bottom of the property, near the 101, the owner ran a small cottage operation, milling reclaimed deadfall from Santa Barbara County into live edge slabs for furniture makers, artisans, and the occasional artist.

Near the stacks and stacks of slabs, was a pile of what I thought was bramble and firewood of flitches. The stack was about 6-8 ft tall and roughly the size of half a football field. Upon inquiring, I was told a flitch was a logging term. It describes the piece of wood that falls off after the first cut on the log. It is meant to make a flat, square surface so the mill can run smoothly and safely. And typically, the flitch is discarded, made into chips, mulch or ironical, sold as bundles of rough cut firewood.

So naturally I decided to poke around, and something just clicked. Call it the sea air, the sound of the freeway - whatever - but I found these flitches to be a perfect portrait and representation of the Gaviota coast itself - a blend of man and nature that is truly one of a kind. And in a way, due to its landscape, it cannot be develop, and so remains timeless.

And then the thought deepened, and how they also were analogous to photographs and memory - a fragment of something else, something bigger, something that tells a bigger story and yet is also suspended in time. Something that possibly sparks another memory, or nostalgia, so while you are looking at the flitch, your are seeing some personal experience in your mind.

I have always believed that art, true art, exists as a dialog between the work and the viewer. So while yes, SKYROCKET may be inspired by an experience I will not disclose, the work is meant to spark memories and conversation with the audience, and to inspire them to gather more experiences that they are a part of, but ultimately are greater than selves. For it is in my opinion, those irreplaceable moments in life; where we both lose ourself and find ourself, are the ones that make life worth living.