Many books have lost their value, packed away in boxes awaiting their final day to draw dust and mold or become ashes. Some books have been fortunate enough to land in the hands of Ted Wray, a Book Sculptor who understands that there is more to a book than meets the eye. He is saving books from extinction, resurrecting them with his resplendent art.
Ted Wray was born with the soul of an artist and the hands of an alchemist. He can hold a book in his hands and see through it, perceiving the magnitude of its essence, knowing that he can sculpt it and turn it into something meaningful.
Playing with various creative disciplines throughout his journey, Ted discovered his interest in carving pages of old books back in 2014. He cultivated a unique book sculpting style in the process, making him realize that he had something new to offer to the creative community.
In 2020, Ted launched his Book Sculpting collection on Instagram, where he shares photos and behind-the-scenes clips of his work, and we can purchase his pieces. We can also join his Patreon account for exclusive access to his art.
Books, and sometimes magazines, filled with images and colors are transformed into masterpieces by Ted. Using a craftsman’s knife, Ted carves one page at a time, starting with the book’s cover and moving inwards. He does not add anything to it but brings out the beauty that already exists within the pages. Time varies, but it can take him about 12 to 80 hours to sculpt, depending on the book.
To create the book sculptures, Ted becomes a willing participant in the creative process allowing the inspiration from beyond the cosmos to guide his X-acto knife and rewrite the book’s story. Ted carves the pages to complement each other, forming a striking psychedelic effect that reveals the most incredible details, which perhaps went unnoticed before.
One of his pieces won first place in the 3-D Art category by The Gilmer Arts (Ellijay, GA) annual juried show. Ted has been exhibited at many art galleries including the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center (a Smithsonian affiliate) “On Paper” national juried show.
Often, the pages that hold our personal stories need some carving to remove what’s needed and bring out the charm that already exists inside each of us. “Though we may think we have a lot of things figured out, there is far more that we don’t, and experience is a wonderful teacher,” Ted explains, adding that “life is for the experiences, so we must collect as many of them as we can, learning to identify along the way what works and what doesn’t.”
“We need to have the audacity to share our art with the world,” Ted’s message is a reminder that as Creative Souls, it takes a lot of guts to put ourselves out there, and at some point, we must trust in our creative flow and have the confidence to share it with the world without constraints.
Through his notable art, Ted Wray invites us to take a leap of faith, look at the pages in our book, and realize that we can sculpt them and rewrite our stories into something extraordinary.
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MORE ABOUT TED
Ted Wray is a lifelong multi-disciplinary artist who, before delving into Book Excavation, spent 20 years as one of Tampa Bay’s busiest working musicians.