Oar Guitar - Guitare de Rame

Marcel LaPierre was a retired Québecois fisherman and my neighbor in Les Iles de la Madeleine. Marcel's career spanned over 55 years and had seen incredible changes in all respects of life on the islands. Even in his retirement, I would watch Marcel go to the pier five or six times a day to help out others, smoke a cigarette and talk story. One time, Marcel saved a drowning man's life whose boat sank by jumping in waters that could have surely taken both of the men's lives. Marcel and the home he built for his family held down a remote part of the island called L'Etang des Caps. Marcel was a gruff and strong man that smoked like a chimney, but, above all else, Marcel LaPierre was kind.

Marcel gave me his well-used set of oars. I was quite taken when I thought about the many years of use and the situations these oars had seen. If you look closely, you can see his initials, ML, carved into the oar. Two guitar-like instruments were made from those oars. This piece is the second. The sides are made from old-style wooden lobster trap door parts that Marcel hand-cut in his work shed during the long, harsh winters, keeping warm next to a wood stove. The brass pegs are from a broken piano.

Original: This item is the original hand made sculpture.

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material: wood oar, wooden lobster trap parts, piano parts, steel
size: 37.5h x 7.5w x 3d
# S-0111