Silver Spring, Maryland
Driftwood Art by Rick LaRue
Reach (or, from patrons: The Choir; Prayer; The Tip-off; and The Burghers of Calais)
City Paper's Best of 2023!
It was a pleasure and honor to be included in the Washington City Paper’s Best Of 2023 edition, in the Arts & Entertainment category. Click here for Nevin Martell’s gracious description of my work.
photo credit: Darrow Montgomery/Washington City Paper
The Art and the Artist
Kayaking the Chesapeake's Shores
Driftwood's beauty comes from the forces of nature that create it: sun, salt, tides, wind and time. The Chesapeake is home to a continually renewing supply. I delight in paddling its hidden shores and finding its treasures, new and old. My kayak can hold pieces of driftwood ranging from 75 pounds and 6 feet tall to treasures that fit in your hand. Every paddle is an adventure: What will I find? What will stand out?
Magic at the Water's Edge
Nature creates the twisted grains, graceful arcs and evocative images that I find. Each piece of driftwood is unique. Their great variety is captured in the scores of photos presented in this site's 14 galleries. I also find crab pot buoys cut loose by boat motors. Buoy accents can add a touch of serenity to the magic found at the water's edge. Stone stacking evokes an additional natural sense of place.
About the Artist
My life-long love of wood found special expression when I began scavenging driftwood from the Chesapeake's shores. Finding "Cocheta" in 2013 (see special gallery below) inspired me to preserve and share such beauty. For indoor pieces, I only clean and sometimes oil the wood. For outdoor pieces, I clean and seal the wood. No sanding, carving or altering the shape is involved. My current work involves creating art out of multiple, usually similar pieces of driftwood. Several friends have said that I curate nature's work. In 2017, after 40 years of working in nonprofit Washington, DC, the Chesapeake Drift Studio was born.
The Zen Garden
Woodhenge
Collecting at the Water's Edge
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Wands and Yads
