Woodworking students find beauty in Helene’s wake

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, so many were looking for any possible silver lining to cling to – some way to make lemonade out of the massive amount of lemons rained down on Augusta during the historic storm. 

For Brian Rust, an art and sculpture instructor in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, that lemonade was a practical variety. He saw opportunity in the countless downed trees in his neighborhood surrounding the Summerville Campus, knowing his students could use them to practice their craft. About a week into hurricane recovery, as the power and water returned, Rust started collecting big pieces of good carving wood – cedar and magnolia – for students to hone their skills in Carving I, a woodworking course he teaches every spring. 

“It wasn’t that bad on my end, but my wife and I kept driving toward campus, and that’s when I really realized like, ‘Oh my God, there are trees everywhere.’ I started thinking, I’m always on the search for wood, I’m definitely going to go and get it,” Rust recounted.

“I tend to like cedar because of the color and the smell; people like it,” he continued. “It’s OK wood to carve, but it’s actually a little kind of brittle. I like magnolia because it’s a nice, blonde-colored wood, and it’s soft and even-grained. I got some help getting it into trucks, then brought it back here, and we’ve gone through quite a bit of it.”

The projects were on display for several weeks in the lab gallery. Some pieces were hung on the wall, while others were placed throughout the viewing space. 

When Sierra Davis considered the assignment, she knew immediately she wanted to carve something from the wood of a big magnolia that fell in her parents’ front yard, her childhood home. 

“I could still keep that, and it wouldn’t necessarily represent the memory, but I could still keep the wood that allows that memory for me,” Davis said. “I may give my piece to a family member or something. So it made me feel better that the tree wasn’t lost in vain. It’s a magnolia I’ve seen since I was 2 and lived in that house, so it meant a lot to be able to repurpose a lost tree.”

Cesar Delgado sketched a plan for his project on paper first. He’s a self-professed tree lover and doesn’t like the idea of cutting down trees. 

“I don’t like people cutting trees unless you’re gonna do something good with them. I always say artists should not cut a tree to make art; they should find a fallen tree or some other material to do it because a tree alive is the best representation of art, in my opinion,” Delgado said. “I’m kind of glad and relieved that I did not destroy the tree. Nature did.”

While the project is one Rust assigns every year, this year it just meant more. 

“That was the only silver lining, you know, about the whole thing,” he said. “I’m always looking for wood. I’m always looking for cedar and magnolia, and it was everywhere.”