Thorsten 1

I will treasure these photos of my grandfather's work. It is a wonderful
array of extraordinary quality work. Thanks also for the description by Mr.
Mansell. I will pass these on to other family members. Thank you for
taking the time to send the file attachments. I did not know him well,
except as a young child (last time I saw him I was 8) as they were
relatively old when my father was born to them and so died when "we" were
young. He helped us make some carvings in his shop when we visited, but the
time frame was short and the memories vague. I took an interest in wood
myself, probably as a way of finding identity in my heritage; something to
grasp onto, as I knew he was a master and it was something I could be proud
of and could hold onto (literally with genetically gifted wrists and body
build). I moved into custom fine furniture making as a young adult (which
Thorsten also did with his brother in Sweden; making extraordinary
"duplicates" of priceless rococo antique furniture to fill out sets, etc.)
and pretty much have hung that and woodcarving as my shingle for all these
years-then adding on sculpture (bronze, cast iron, glass) to my artistic
pallet, of few pieces you may have seen in the fineartamerica.com website.
I am heartened that Thorsten was very interested in making duplicates by way
of molds and that is what I have done for a piece of his; his carved wedding
bowl-the traditional Swedish wedding tradition and cast it in bronze and
cast iron and glass in my foundry.

The Swedes that I met at the "Vasa" Museum (a different "vasa") were
interested in his work and he wrote about the symbolism he believed to be
inherent in the original carvings of the Vasorden (he re-carved the
ornamentation using a magnifying glass in one hand to interpret the old
photographs and a chisel in the other), which he began to believe were
inspired by Immanual Swedenborg back when the original boat was made as he
was very familiar with the intricate symbolism of the "heavenly kingdom" as
described by Swedenborg who lived in that 18th century era. I believe the
Lutheran Swedes even today were somewhat taken aback by his assertions and
projections about this magnificent carving as it probably challenges the
mainstream culture. According to Val, he saw symbolism everywhere and was a
master of it. Of course his carvings as you have shown - are immersed in
symbolism. I was also interested to learn that, contrary to my assumptions
that my father grew up in a solid monolithic Swedenborgian community in Bryn
Athyn, Philadelphia, that the community had split/factionalized over the
issue of whether one needs an intermediary in order to be in touch with
"God" and he and my grandmother (who wrote a voluminous biography of
Swedenborg) were of the "pray in your closet" variety, something which I am
also proud of.

Hope those details do not rock too many boats.