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woodezine - Volume
III - Issue II - February 2005
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Toothpick Tenacity
Sponsored
by the Village Originals
Made
from 1,000 toothpicks and glue, the San Francisco cable car (above)
revolves on a musical base which plays "I left my heart in San Francisco".
The unique art of
Steven J. Backman
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It's not often that a woodworker makes the headlines, but last month, the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, declared that Tuesday, January 11, 2005 was to be known as "Steven J. Backman Day". Steven has been creating toothpick sculptures for over 30 years - everything from a thirteen foot long sculpture of the Golden Gate Bridge (right) to radio controlled toothpick boats that actually work in water (below). This month - February 2005 - he is being honored with a solo exhibition at the Concourse Gallery (555 California Street in San Francisco), where thirteen of his unique sculptures are on exhibition through the 5th of the month. |
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It took 30,000 toothpicks and 30 months of work to create the thirteen-foot-long model of the Golden Gate Bridge shown above, right. Weighing 14.4 lbs and measuring just under four and a half feet in length, the radio controlled yacht at left consumed an incredible 10,000 toothpicks and six months of the artist's time. |
In March through May of 2006, twenty thousand people a day will be
viewing Steven's toothpick sculptures in the lobby of
the Empire State Building in New York.
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All text and images on this page are copyrighted and used with the artist's permission. |
