One glance around the office of Jon Saline and it is evident that he has an appreciation for beautifully made wooden sculptures. What may be surprising is that most of those art pieces were created by Saline with his own hands and creativity.
Since 2002, Arizona Attorney Magazine has held an annual Creative Arts Competition giving an opportunity for lawyers to submit their creative projects. The contest includes categories such as photography, fiction and nonfiction writing, painting, poetry, humor, music and sculpture. Winners were featured on the cover of the May 2018 issue of the magazine.
Saline, an attorney in Snowflake and candidate for Justice of the Peace, recently won the sculpture category of the competition for the fourth year in a row. “I love woodturning; It’s cathartic for me. There is something interesting about getting just a chunk of wood and trying to figure out what would this look like on the inside,” said Saline. Many of his projects are on display in his office. Saline went on to say, “If I could do this full time I would.”
This year’s winning sculpture is a gorgeous rustic looking oak bowl. “It is actually a piece of firewood,” said Saline. He simply saw the beauty in that chunk of oak firewood and went to work. This piece only took about six hours to complete but some of Saline’s pieces take as much as 30 hours or more to create.
Wood is his preferred medium and turning the wood with a lathe is his preferred method, but Saline is also experimenting with combining other items with the wood. Saline said, “Usually you are taking away from the wood bowl, but I thought why don’t I add to the bowl. I like to add things in that are odd or unique.”
A previous award-winning piece included inlayed gears, bicycle chain and various metal items to create a steampunk style wooden vase. Another vase type container incorporates resin to mimic the look of rock to surround the wood.
Some of Saline’s pieces have been displayed in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the LDS Church History Museum during their annual art competition. Saline has considered having a gallery show but that would require him to create a collection of pieces and he simply doesn’t have the time.
Saline has been expressing himself creatively through woodturning for about two decades and it shows. It takes a special eye to look at a simple block of wood and envision a stunning sculpture and then to put tools to wood to bring that vision to life. Saline clearly has the talent it takes to create unique works of art. A perfect example of amazing talent hidden in plain sight.
