1970's Hippie Wood Sculptor

I live in a North Carolina hardwood forest, surrounded by the media in which I work. My forest provides solace in its peaceful chaos and spiritual sustenance in the material it provides for my work. I value these attributes and strive to maintain its ecological balance and health by practicing sustainable forestry. I harvest only downed, dead-fall trees and those showing rot, infestation or other indicators of a terminal condition.

Unlike most woodcarvers, who work in milled lumber, I sculpt natural whole round timber. Commissions negotiable: Lead times vary depending upon the project, workload and ready availability of suitable timber.

In the 1950s I apprenticed with my old-world carpenter grandfather and learned that the concepts; ‘Square,’ ‘Level’ and ‘True’ were foreign to my dyslexic mind. I did discover, however, that given a suitable piece of wood and a knife, chisel or gouge, I could carve decorative sculptural forms.

During the years between the 1950s and 1970s, I served in the U. S. Army, married, fathered children, failed in business and was divorced by my wife. In a state of depressed desolation, while moving out of our home and preparing to go to sea, I rediscovered my grandfather’s tools.

Opening that old-world chest was an epiphany! It hadn’t been opened in years and the scent of old iron and desiccated oil that wafted out brought me back to the old man’s side and simultaneously projected me into the remainder of my life ashore.