by Gail Jokerst Montana Living Thursday, May 01, 2003

When the Nestle Company needed to find an artist capable of carving a 14-foot-high totem pole out of chocolate, its public relations director typed “chocolate” and sculptor” into an Internet search engine, and fervently hoped some matches existed. Only one website popped up on the screen—www.amberjean.com.

Although Amber Jean, a Livingston-based sculptor, considers the connection “a cyberspace fluke,” she admits it seemed logical under the circumstances. At that time, in 1999, Amber Jean’s artist statement appeared on her website, and it began: “I am fueled by chocolate and driven by a head full of ideas like children all demanding to be let out first. I work hard to free them.”

Up until then, Amber Jean had chiseled a variety of hardwoods to fashion her western-themed fountains, lamps, doors and humidors. But she had no expertise carving in soft, temperamental chocolate. That didn’t deter her, however, from traveling to Nestle’s annual chocolate festival in Wisconsin. With a five-gallon bucket of Raisinettes and Goobers for sustenance and the gouges and mallets of her trade by her side, Amber Jean chipped away at the chocolate. Sixty hours later, the one-of-a-kind totem pole, carved in the style of the Northwest coastal Indians, stood finished. It featured a mother and child, a bear, and a raven perched on the top.

Nestle liked the carving so much, they invited her back the following year. This time, she sculpted a bed that weighed 5,000 pounds. On the top, she “draped” a rainbow-colored 500-pound quilt made from candy. Those quirky jobs landed her an appearance on television’s “To Tell the Truth.” As it happened, none of the panelists guessed she was “The Michelangelo of Milk Chocolate.”

Obviously, to tackle the massive carvings Amber Jean is known for, a sculptor has to feel comfortable working big. And that’s exactly how this Montana State graduate has always approached her art. “The first day of a college drawing class, she put pencil to a 24-inch by 36-inch tablet like the other students, but didn’t get far. “My energy went off the page.” Recalls Amber Jean. Rather than rein in her impulses, the instructor simply commented, “You need bigger paper.”

Ever since, working big has defined Amber Jean’s modus operandi. You see it in her 1,500-pound hand-carved wooden bed frame with mustangs streaking across the headboard. You also see it in her 900-pound bison benches crafted from bronze and black walnut and in her 11-foot-tall grandfather clock from with which wolves seem to emerge cautiously.

So it’s not unusual to hear this artist describe one of her large-scale projects in terms such as the number of men required to move it. Fortunately for Amber Jean’s helpers, her current-day works are mostly carved in wood, not chocolate, which she knows from first-hand encounters is a lot heavier than wood.

For Amber Jean, sculpting wood is about “the push-pull dichotomy of nature’s elegance and roughness and bringing the wild indoors.” Nothing pleases her more than creating a piece, “where people can experience how the West is graceful yet overwhelming.” Whether she’s carving a gnarly juniper or luxurious mahogany, Amber Jean sees infinite possibilities in her favorite medium. “I love the juxtaposition of wood, how it can be hard and strong, yet curve and flow,” she says. “I find it endlessly beautiful, inviting and challenging.” Depending on the project, she might also incorporate water, rock, glass or copper into a piece. But wood always takes center stage.

From the start, Amber Jean portrayed animals—the bison, bears, wolves and moose of her native state, as well as mythical critters. “I feel strongly about animals. They intrigue me. You can find a world in each animal she states, and I haven't become bored yet with the discovery of it all.”

To make it possible for people to see wildlife through her eyes, Amber Jean says she found herself creating works where, “function became an invitation to experience the piece.” Which explains in part why she chose furniture that people live with daily as a medium for her message. It became a way for her to enable people, “I experience the animal more intimately.”

Early on, Amber Jean was drawn to woods that don’t usually catch people’s attention. Take her love of juniper for instance. “It’s a twisty weathered wood that’s had a hard life,” she says. “It’s not necessarily attractive. But cleaning up the juniper is like a discovery. You wouldn’t know what was under the surface—the streaks of red—unless you polished it.”

Another unusual material that has attracted Amber Jean is burned wood. Something she used most effectively in a grandfather clock that she titled, “Yesterday’s Tomorrow.” The choice of scorched wood wasn’t accidental. It played an important role in the message she wanted to communicate. “The clock is about Mother Nature and the idea that we try to manage Mother Nature, but overall, she manages herself over time.” Explains Amber Jean, who featured wolves in the work because to her they symbolize wilderness.

On another level, you could say the clock has an autobiographical element to it as well. It incorporates influences on Amber Jean’s life from her stints working as a wild land firefighter, wilderness range and trail crewmember. It also incorporates the influence of living in Europe where she studied art and spent many hours in and around cathedrals. Whenever she heard cathedral chimes, they reminded her “of things of the spirit.” Which is the feeling she wanted to reproduce with this clock.

“The chime was to make people pause and feel reverent.” She states. “It takes you somewhere other than the space you’re in. There’s a resonance to that deep bong sound that makes you pause. It’s an excuse to get people to stop and think.”

It was during her summers clearing trails and fighting fires in the wilderness that she learned to handle a chain saw—a skill that became a valuable ally when Amber Jean embarked on her art career.

“I found I could get rid of a lot of wood fast with a chain saw,” she recalls. “It let me get to the image quickly.” The nontraditional background also prompted Amber Jean to use other tools rarely found in a wood sculptor'’ repertoire. Tools such as grinders, pneumatic drills and tungsten carbide tips that metal workers or mechanics might use. “I think the informal part of learning woodworking made me se what could be done when others said it couldn’t,” she observes.

After completing the initial stages of each piece with power tools, she relies on hand tools for details and polishing. “There’s no substitute for the look and feel of hand-chiseled wood.” She says. And anyone who knows anything wood will also tell the smoother the surface, the more light is reflected. Which explains why Amber Jean meticulously burnishes every nook, cranny and crevice of her work. “It’s all about light,” she emphasizes. “Form happens because of light. It bounces off the light.”

Unlike some artists, Amber Jean doesn’t start a piece with a predetermined blueprint. Instead, she begins with a feeling she wants to convey—wildness, freedom, reverence—and a general idea of how she intends to communicate that concept. After she selects the wood, she’ll live with it for several days to get a sense of its potential. As she draws on the wood, then carves and polishes it, the wood inspires her and “dictates what comes together. I embark on the adventure knowing there’s going to be a certain conclusion,” she says. “But I don’t know how the conclusion will look specifically.”

While Amber Jean had always planned to pursue a career in the arts, she never expected to be a Western artist. It wasn’t until she started carving professionally that she realized that all her designs related to some aspect of the West. Considering she has spent most of her life in Montana and has a passion for wide, open spaces and wilderness, it’s not surprising that she found herself pulled in that direction. “The trees and the West are so grand and powerful, they’re a part of my life,” she states. “To be honest and work from my own experience, Western art had to be a part of it. You can’t separate Western art from nature.”

And you can’t separate the art that Amber Jean creates from where she heads after a long day at the studio—a remote mountaintop home with a “bird’s-nest view” of Livingston, the Yellowstone River and three mountain ranges. Even though she enjoys occasional trips overseas or around the country, Amber Jean says, “My appreciation for this place gets broadened by leaving. I feel so lucky to come back to this. To have mountain lions, wolves, deer and moose come through the yard and I actually get to see them. Where I am is a big part of who I am.”

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