A homeless man on the Isle of Wight is auctioning his carving of a narwhal tusk today (Wednesday), to raise funds for a West Wight charity supporting vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic.
David Wallace, whose work will be shown at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition this autumn, spent two months carving the
tusk from a fallen oak branch found at Fort Victoria Country Park, near Yarmouth.
All proceeds from the auction will go to the West Wight Corona Support Group, which is a team of volunteers and furloughed staff from the West Wight Sports Centre.
The team has assisted over 500 people suffering hardship as a result of the pandemic (including David), by supplying hot meals, collecting medicines, shopping, providing transport and even ofering a friendly chat.
David became a popular figure at Fort Victoria Country Park in 2018 when he spent the summer months carving a fallen tree on the beach with a myriad of real and mythical sea creatures, much to the delight of local children and holidaymakers.
David’s work is grounded in the philosophy that nature is to be enjoyed by everyone, and the cycles of nature provide him with the raw materials to turn into objects that are also to be enjoyed by everyone.
Tragically, his beautiful tree sculpture was stolen just as it was finished at the end of the summer, with all evidence at the scene suggesting that it had been chainsawed of at its roots and towed away by boat.
In the summer of 2019 David carved another tree which is currently on display in front of the fort.
It was this second beach sculpture which caught the eye of local Freshwater artist Becca Cameron, who immediately recognised that David’s work was good enough for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.
From photographs, the Academy selected a pair of crutches that David carved while teaching his craft at the Riverside Centre in Newport. This carving represents a significant moment in David’s life history. The crutches helped David out of the wheelchair that he had been using since sufering a serious motorcycle accident in his youth.
Brading-based HRD Auction Rooms has provided its online auction platform for the sale.
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