If a picture can paint a thousand words, can a sculpture carve a novel?

鈥淭hat sounds like a silly question only because it made you look at an old saying a little differently,鈥� says Comox Valley artist Daniel Needham. 鈥淚f you like looking at things differently, if you like art that tells stories and challenges your perspective, then come to see (my) paintings and sculptures at the Worthy Room Gallery in Cumberland.鈥�

The show, called 鈥楥hapter and Versus: Challenging Stories from the Past,鈥� runs from March 3-26, at the studio located at 2708 Dunsmuir Ave. There will be an opening event Friday, March 4, from 5-8 p.m.

This mildly provocative show explores tales that many of us have heard at one time or another. Stories that have come from ancient Greece and from both testaments. There鈥檚 even a twisted nursery rhyme and a Portrait of the Artist as an Old Soldier. There are a few modern situational comedies and tragedies too, just because the stories behind them needed to be told.

鈥淲hat else would you expect from someone who calls himself @ikonocaustic?鈥� said Needham, who excels at both the reductive processes (of carving bits away) and the additive processes (of making and assembling and painting). 鈥淭he resulting pieces of art 鈥� whether paintings, or sculptures made of stone, wood, metal, and even cotton 鈥� are beguiling. Give yourself plenty of time to engage when you come to this show.鈥�

ALSO: Comox Valley carver co-creates ice sculpture for national contest