About
The following is only a portion of roughly 40 years, chipping away at a God-given gift that I am still exploring and see no end to.
When I was a kid, I tried drawing but the only thing I could draw was trees. Something about the stump going up in ways, branching off, then branching again, and again, then branching over here and over there, etc… There were no rules. Just branches! Then leaves and leaves and more leaves! Well, years later after going broke trying to promote concerts in Florida I ended up in Three Rivers Ca. Gateway to the Sequoias of all places. There I went to work for a guy chopping wood and cutting ‘mistletoe’ out of trees. You’d never guess what happened…I GOT KISSED!
Soon I was carving little likenesses of the giant Sequoia trees with a chainsaw and selling them to the Sequoia National Park gift shop. Not only that but practicing on bears that looked like pigs at first, human-like faces that needed a lot of work, and learning as I went. Then one day I arrived myself in Monterey Ca. at an incredible carving store, Burlwood Industries. It was like heaven on earth! A huge variety of larger than life and countless smaller carvings, from bears to human figures and everything in between… not to mention plenty of giant redwood logs. It was everything a carver could dream of, including the owner, my future Bride! The rest is History … almost.
