We first met more than 30 years ago, on his wedding day. It was a garden wedding, and he was marrying one of our closest friends, Maite. They migrated to the United States soon after; then about 10 years ago to Canada.

Four years ago, at an exhibit in Manilart, he unveiled quite a unique type of art: kinetic wood sculpture.

Kinetic art sources of movements may be wind power, magnet, electric motor, water flow, pushing and pulling strings, fire, pressure-driving, gravity, spring or a combination of any two. Kinetic wood sculpture is mounted on a wall. It should be strictly perpendicular. Neither run by battery nor electricity, it runs like a mechanical watch or a pendulum clock.

Cris’ first interest was to make a clock, and his first project was a pendulum clock. Interestingly, without a mentor and by just doing research on his own, he made a pendulum move.

We all know that a pendulum clock should have a precise movement to give the correct time. The art of clock making is called horology. Statistically, there are a handful of horologists around the world. It is a very precise science with horologists working on very limited space and thickness with complications like time, calendar, alarms, mechanical or automatic winding mechanisms and astronomical indicators.

Buyers of his work will be assured of one-of-a-kind pieces as he throws away all his previous designs.

The more complications, the more difficult to design and execute and extremely expensive. Thus, it is very difficult to do it by yourself.

Thus, Cris’ pendulum clock became a reverse process: he kept on altering the clock, telling the clock the right time instead of a clock giving him the correct time. And why not a sundial which is easier to make and will precisely give the correct time during the day? Cris wants movements, as stationary is something boring to him.

He is also not the type of person who would easily give up. He continued with his research, and chanced upon kinetic wood sculpture. It is still very technical but has less complications than the art of mechanical watchmaking.

Of course, kinetic wood sculpture is still difficult. The process involves designing on paper, cutting the papers, fidgeting and moving his designs, and a lot of imagination on how the movement would look before finally tracing it on wood: a layered Russian Birchwood plywood.

The cutting starts using power tools, then putting it together to see if it moves as he has imagined it, before finally polishing and painting the wood.

He started about 10 years ago and, until now, there are still chances of his designs not moving after all the imagination that went into it. In simple terms, the usual reason for failure of movement is when the total weight or counter weight (reverse motions of some parts) of moving wooden parts exceeds the total weight of the attached spring can handle. It is like some kinetic art driven by wind: if the wind pressure is not enough to handle the weight of an art piece, there will be no movement!

On the average, he can finish a piece in a month and his clients, as well as a lot of onlookers, are hypnotized, mesmerized by his masterpieces. A photograph cannot capture the magic and feeling when looking at kinetic wood sculpture — one has to experience it.