Accession Number
2002/2.145

Title
Three Gold Rings, from Ringed Series

Artist(s)
Todd Hoyer

Object Creation Date
1991

Medium & Support
eucalyptus, imitation gold leaf

Dimensions
11 7/16 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (29 x 19 x 19 cm);11 7/16 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (29 x 19 x 19 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen

Label copy
Todd Hoyer
Born 1952, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Lives and works in Bisbee, Arizona
Three Gold Rings, from Ringed series
1991
Eucalyptus, imitation gold leaf
Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen, 2002/2.145

Some contemporary woodturners have experimented with fire as a finishing process, in place of refining techniques like sanding and staining. Fire was both artistic and symbolic in Todd Hoyer’s Ringed series, which was created as a response to Hoyer’s painful divorce from his wife and her subsequent death.

Mike Irolla (see object 2002/2.147) turns whole logs in order to retain the natural edges of the wood. Fire then becomes the finishing element for his work, leaving a charred black surface in place of paint.

(Out of the Ordinary, 2010)
March 28, 2009
Todd Hoyer’s unusual vessel of eucalyptus tells a personal story of loss and enduring human bonds. It is part of his Ringed Series, the theme of which is bindings and connections. Three Gold Rings was created after a painful separation from and the subsequent death of Hoyer’s wife, which left him a single parent of a six-year-old. Hoyer says: “the two rings on the upper portion represent myself and my daughter, still linked together. The single loose ring at the bottom represents my wife, broken from the chain. The burnt and charred surface is the background for that emotional time.”
Hoyer employs a variety of techniques, such as carving, weathering, burning, or splitting wood to communicate different meanings: burnt surfaces often reflect the blackness of the void and the hollowness within; carving and surface texturing can suggest beauty or the scarring that comes with age; splitting the wood reveals the flow of the grain and indicates the tree’s growth.

Subject matter
A turned wood vessel that addresses relationships and time--togetherness, loss, and death. The loose ring of gold represents the artist's wife, from whom the artist separated before her death. The two overlapping rings represent the artist and his daughter.

Physical Description
A bulbous vessel with narrow mouth and base. The wood is burned and cracked and circled by three gold bands, two of which overlap.
burnt wood vessel with gold

Primary Object Classification
Wood and Woodcarving

Primary Object Type
vessel

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
burning
deaths
families (kinship groups)
memory
mortality
pyrography
vessels (containers)
wood (plant material)
woodworking