David L. Hostetler/OHIO
Wood carver and bronze sculptor
Woman in wood: Since 1957, David L. Hostetler has carved wood sculptures exploring one dominant theme, the essence of woman. He gained national prominence in the 1960s, portraying the American woman in graceful flowing sculptures of oak, elm, walnut, maple–indigenous hardwoods evoking the quality he admires most, her strength. His obsession led him to dig deeper, and he began to resurrect ancient goddesses, his present theme.
Grace note: “My sculpture is woman with the mark of the present and the past cultures on her. Timeless woman as an object, a goddess, angular, sensual, stylized, but always filled with grace and vitality,” he says.
Made for each other: Among all goddesses, Asherah, one of the most ancient and primitive feminine figures representing the regenerative powers of the Earth, is Hostetler’s main inspiration. Asherah was a Semitic goddess of ancient Canaan. Her image was carved in living trees, which makes it easy to understand why Hostetler found his muse in her.
Happy media: Hostetler’s main medium is wood, which appeals to his close affinity to nature and things organic. But he recently has begun to create outdoor sculptures in bronze painted with high-end automotive paints.
Artist by accident: During World War II, Hostetler was wounded in a training exercise in California. During his six-month recuperation, he received drawing materials and began drawing fellow patients in the ward-no faces, just the torsos. “I had an epiphany and never looked back,” he says.
His own roots: Born in Ohio in 1926, with Amish roots, Hostetler received his bachelor of arts degree from Indiana University in 1948, followed by a master’s of fine arts from Ohio University, where he taught for 38 years. He retired as full professor of sculpture in 1985.
Cutting up: He lives with his wife, Susan Crehan, in Athens, Ohio, on a 40-acre farm “loaded with wood.” Part of the year he spends in Nantucket, Mass., where he has a small private gallery.
Faithful in his fashion: Is his wife ever jealous of his work? “Some of those (sculptures) I did even before she came into my life look like her,” Hostetler says, which he finds a mystical coincidence.
Branching out: Hostetler’s work can be found in private collections as well as public ones, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a pocket park at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York. His work can be seen locally from May 6 through Nov. 7 during Navy Pier’s “Pier Walk `99,” the largest temporary exhibition of outdoor sculpture in the world.
Prices: Door pulls, in bronze, start at $2,400. Sculptures range from $3,000 to $75,000.
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