Caption
From the clay hills back of his ranchhouse, Hodgson looks down over his 2600-acre ranch near Dorothy, Alberta on the Red Deer River. Sage and cactus stud the slopes; cottonwoods fringe the riverbank. Hodgson came to Canada from England when he was 15, worked as a trick-rider in wild west shows before settling down to the life of a rancher-sculptor.
Release Date
February 5, 1957
Materials
Typescript with illustrations
Photographers
Harrington, RichardCollection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Caption
The wayward juniper root is a challenge to any cutting edge. Hodgson designed and made his own tools from old machinery, keeps them razor-sharp on the ranch grindstone.
Date
December 1, 1956
Accession Number
LAC-NFB79161
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011176429
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Prairie sculptor, Wilfred Garstrong Hodgson, who turned to whittling in slim depression times and today command top prices for his wood carvings, is a superb craftsman with an unerring instinct for the artistic. Self-taught, he soon uncovered a secret of history's sculptural greats: the artist should not attempt to impose his will upon his medium, but be content merely to release the form locked within the slab of marble, the block of wood.
Date
December 1, 1956
Accession Number
LAC-NFB79163
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011176430
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Hodgson's medium is the gnarled juniper root which he rides the ranges, far and wide, to secure. After 25 years of carving, his search for material takes him many hundreds of miles afield into the eroded draws of the bentonite hills. Out of a twisted, tortured mass, will emerge the artist's free-flowing carvings: willowy women, mysterious madonnas -- each a gem of lyrical, though sometimes weird, loveliness.
Date
December 1, 1956
Accession Number
LAC-NFB79164
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011176431
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Fashioned by nature, finished by man is the way Hodgson describes his moodily-beautiful wood carvings which have been well received by Canadian art circles and the buying public.
Date
December 1, 1956
Accession Number
LAC-NFB79165
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011176432
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Photostory #91: New Look for Juniper Roots: Alberta's Rancher-Sculptor
Photographers
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
February 5, 1957
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
From the clay hills back of his ranchhouse, Hodgson looks down over his 2600-acre ranch near Dorothy, Alberta on the Red Deer River. Sage and cactus stud the slopes; cottonwoods fringe the riverbank. Hodgson came to Canada from England when he was 15, worked as a trick-rider in wild west shows before settling down to the life of a rancher-sculptor.
Subjects:
