Stephen King has artwork in Sculptures by the Sea

He is one of at least 100 artists from across Australia and the world with their work lining the popular two-kilometre coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama in Sydney from Friday, October 20, to Monday, November 6.

This year, Mr King has 'Crooked Man from Hurricane Gully', a sculpture made from rescued Australian bush timber blown over by wild winds, in the open air exhibition.

"There was a storm in Walcha in 2018 that knocked down more than a million trees. It was vicious. And it came out of a gully on Hurricane Gully Road," Mr King said.

"It really devastated the district, and people are still kind of cleaning up ... the farmers can't help but go out and push everything up and burn it."

Mr King said he drove his truck down to Hurricane Gully Road one day when local farmers were chopping up the fallen trees into firewood, and picked up a "couple of meaty logs" that later became his sculpture.

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During the four months it took him to carve the sculpture, he couldn't shake the nursery rhyme 'Crooked Man' on repeat in his head.

Mr King said he got the inspiration for the title not only from the nursery rhyme, and where he sourced the wood, but due to the reported amounts of carbon Australian hardwood releases into the atmosphere when it is burned.

"A lot of my sculptures are about carbon because Australian hardwood is really a carbon store," Mr King said.

"And the 'Crooked Man from Hurricane Gully' reminds me of three men carrying a coffin.

"So, it's kind of like a carbon coffin that's been saved from the atmosphere.

"It also has a little bit of a Transformers feel to it as you move around it because of the way the legs are shaped. It has a bit of a spooky move."

Mr King had his first large-scale work showcased in Sculpture by the Sea the first year the coastal exhibition opened in 1997.

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