On Monday, a wood-carved sculpture made its way from the Elk Rapids Walk of Art to the Clam Lake Canal in Cadillac.
On Monday, artist Sam Soet, with the help of a few extra sets of hands, raised his nearly 700 pound sculpture, Hardwoods IV, on the east end of the Clam Lake Canal in Cadillac.
Originally placed on the Elk Rapids Walk of Art, Soet's work was purchased by the Cadillac Arts Council, with a donation from the Barnett Family.
The piece is inspired by waterways and vessels, giving it a canoe-like shape. Soet uses a subtractive technique with his art, carving away at a full piece of wood until he finds a form he likes.
Adding the structure to the canal was fitting, Soet said, and meaningful due to Cadillac being a stopping point between his previous home of Farwell and his parents' home in Portage Lake.
"I would always be going through here, and we're very familiar with the area, so I was very pleased that this piece in particular was picked for this spot," he said.
Rather than searching for a pristine piece of wood to work with, Soet is comfortable with imperfections. Actually, he welcomes them.
“And you'll see what's happening with this is I actually left where the sapwood started to age, so it was sitting out for a while, and then the little details where there are bark inclusions and things like that," he said. "I love the mapping that happens when things have more activity because of the tree itself, or in the streaks that are in the sapwood here, that's staining that's caused by fungus starting to take over.”
While working with the Midwest Sculpture Intiative, Soet has seen many of his works of art travel across state lines, but every once in a while, they can find a permanent home. He said Hardwoods IV is in its best environment.