Artist turns wood into provocative art

One of artist (& art professor emeritus) Ray Gloeckler’s various self-portraits is “Woodcutter Mouse,” a hairy, hunched and bespectacled creature scratching obsessively on a hunk of wood with a sharp little tool. What foolish behavior, the image says to us, and that mouse seems to signify most humans at some time or other, especially the biggest and most powerful. That view of the world emerges from a delightfully engrossing exhibit, “Woodcuts by Ray Gloeckler,” running through Jan. 23 at the University of Wisconsin’s Elvehjem Museum of Art.