The Chico Enterprise-Record
Wednesday, March 27, 1985
by Wilson Dillard
This article contaians 1126 words.

George Nakashima ran his hand over the huge walnut slab, four inches thick, nearly 14 feet long.

"I would hope," said the soft-spoken, 79-year-old Japanese-American after a long pause, "that such a magnificent tree - such beautiful wood could be used to create a conference table where the people sitting around it are discussing world peace."

"This would be a fitting tribute to such a tree said the man who has been called "the dean of the world's woodworkers."

Nakashima, who disclaims the "pretentious" title "I've just been at it longer" is visiting the Chico area this week for a specific purpose: he has purchased what is probably the world's largest black walnut stump from a local tree specialist.

The 14-foot, 12-ton tree trunk Nakashima and Chico's Scott Wineland are converting into the huge slabs came from a dying tree which Wineland discovered in a residential yard along Sandy Gulch.

A number of world-renowned woodworkers, including Nakashima, have discovered that the special "Claro" black walnut tree, which grows in abundance in the Chico area, produces what is probably the world's finest wood for furniture and art objects.

"A tree especially a magnificent tree such as this one should have its own destiny," Nakashima proclaimed, gently rubbing his hand over the wood to examine its color and grain.

"Too often the wood from great trees such as this ends up as rifle stocks, salad bowls and knick-knack boxes. It's such a shame."

The four-inch slabs Wineland is carefully Cutting with his specially equipped "Alaskan chainsaw" will be shipped back to Nakashima's East Coast studio and prepared for a number of special artistic projects.

During the project, Nakashima, who resides in New Hope, Pa has been staying with Scott and Linda Wineland, owners of Wineland Walnut on Chico River Road.

What type of furniture or art objects will Nakashima create from it?

"That hasn't been decided," he laughs. The huge slabs will be hard to use because they are simply too big for most standard works. "It would certainly be a big coffee table."

Actually, Nakashima said, such huge pieces of walnut are usually used to create giant conference tables in executive board rooms or in governmental offices where large groups meet.

But a piece of wood like this deserves a higher purpose, Nakashima said. "By growing to such size and beauty, it is an extraordinary natural phenomenon that may occur only once in the history of a nation's lifetime."

"It is a symbol, not only of the life and spirit of that nation of its people's hopes and dreams - but of life itself."

"Just look at those terrible tables they're meeting over in Geneva. I can tell, even without looking, that those tables are made of nothing but plywood and plastic. It shows in the results of their discussions."

"If the wood in their table is false, their discussions begin falsely as well," said the artist. "How can the results of such discussions be anything but false? How, I ask you?"

Nakashima and Wineland became acquainted two years ago when the wood carver hired the wood cutter to fly to Pennsylvania to cut another massive walnut log the artist discovered on Long Island.

Since then, Wineland has sold Nakashima several huge, locally grown stumps for his artistic masterpieces.

Nakashima is currently preparing the wood from the huge Long Island stump for the creation of "Altars for Peace," one of which may be placed in the foyer of the United Nations Building in New York.

The idea for such altars, he said, came to him as a vision while he was recovering from life-threatening surgery in 1983, and he has written about that vision in an essay "'My Dream An Altar for Peace," which he has shared with many of his associates.

One such associate Nobel Prize-winning biologist George Wald, a professor emeritus of Harvard University has called Nakashima's vision -a noble dream," and he, along with many other of Nakashima's eminent supporters, are now studying the feasibility of beginning a fund-raising effort to support the project.

"We've held a luncheon attended by many prominent people to discuss this possibility, and I think it's gathering momentum," Nakashima predicts.

"If it takes place, we will probably limit contributions to $10-20 per individual to let all types of people participate. It should be a 'people's' thing."

The initial plans for the altar (or altars) vary, with some calling for two altars one for the U.N. Building and one for the Japanese city of Hiroshima and other plans calling for five altars -- one for each of the world's continents.

Nakashima favors the plans for an altar to be placed in Hiroshima, saying the people there "are very supportive of the Peace Movement and have constructed a number of monuments to peace in their city."

He also says the city of Santa Fe, N.M., is a location worthy of a symbol of peace because "Santa Fe is a very peace-loving place and its citizens are non-aggressive. Its atmosphere is one of peace many cities are too hostile and unfriendly."

Peace is very precious to Nakashima, who has witnessed what a breakdown of it can bring. The still-spry artist was born in Spokane, Wash., in 1906, but during World War II, he found himself because of his Japanese ancestry spending a year in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. Memories of this experience tend to wipe the almost perpetual smile from his face.

"That was an 'interesting' period of our lives," is about all he will say when asked questions concerning the incident.

Since the war, he has lived in Pennsylvania, creating his furniture, conference tables and works of art out of the world's beautiful woods.

In doing so, he has gained international acclaim for both his artistry and for his teachings as a master craftsman.

Nakashima said he was commissioned to completely furnish the private estate of former Vice President and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller with wooden furniture, including tables, chairs, cabinets and other items.

The estate, located in the Pocantico Hills area of Tarrytown, still contains the painstakingly Grafted masterpieces and may one day be open to tours to allow people to view Nakashima's work.

The artist has also created beautiful conference tables and other furniture for the corporate headquarters of the Gulf State Paper Corp. in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the Japan House in New York City, and for the president's office and the executive dining room of the International Paper Co., also in New York.

In his work, he says, the Claro walnut of California is probably his favorite wood, although he also favors English walnut from Great Britain, Persian walnut from Iran, maple from the East Coast and such exotic woods as rosewood, ebony and Carpathian elm.