My great grandfather, John Henry Allyn, born in 1834, was an inventor, a skilled mechanic and a stone and wood carver. A set of his carving tools, remarkable artifacts with hand carved handles and shaped steel cutting edges, became the starting point for this project. Taking an approach of managed chance, images of the tools are combined with photographs of cut fragments of oil paintings on masonite by his daughter, Helen Palmeter. By introducing randomness in the set-up for photography and by employing a process of overprinting, the completed images become something new. They begin to satisfy a desire to celebrate the work of both the carver and the painter.
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