As a young boy I would watch my father as he carved his walking sticks, clubs, and more. I guess it was only natural that I started to draw and color along side him. As time progressed I started taking more interest in art in particular oil painting. I my teens My father purchased me my first oil color set and I painted this picture. As with any skill the more you practice the better and more proficiet you become at it. soon I was selling my oil paintings along side my fathers carvings at pow-wows. People would ask me if I also carved and I told them no I had no interest at the time in carving. This shortsightedness on my behalf would hunt me later in life when my father passed away and I never learned how to carve from on the the masters in the art. My oil painting took off in high school and after I was selling my works all over and gaining notoriety in my art. I won many awards and appeared on two TV shows. Then my father died and just like that I stopped painting, I could not get myself to paint it reminded me of all the times we spent togather and the emptyness and loss was not allowing me to goon. Then one summer morning back in 2001 I told my wife I "need" to carve. She just looked at me and I said I want to carve I have this craving the need to go carve. I gathered my fathers old carving supplies that was in storage and started carving. Since that morning I havnot stoped carving and it feels like I have been carving all my life. < back to carvings >
