A few years before my father died, my young son asked him to draw a horse. Considering, I had never seen my father draw anything, I thought this was an odd request. To my amazement, the picture he drew was beautiful. Everyone has talents, with any luck those skills can be released to create a more fulfilling life. I wish my father had lived long enough to see some of the horses I carved. He would have been proud of me.
How I got to that point was an interesting journey. I am a self-taught woodworker. I love a challenge and problem solving (two good skills for any homeowner). There were many improvements I completed on our home and maybe that would have satisfied my love of woodworking. One day, out of the blue, I decided to carve a horse. I knew nothing about carving. Fortunately, there are many artists who shared their skills in books. I learned as much as I could and then the adventure began. Carving is a wonderful and almost zen-like experience. You have a vision in your mind and then bring that image to life.
In about a year, I was ready to carve a horse. He was a good first attempt, but I needed him to be perfect. I visited stables often to interact with many horses to study their anatomy and feel their energy. I needed that to create better horses and I sure did. In 1998, I was working on “Let’s Dance”. He was modeled after an Arabian, named Promise. When carving large horses, there is a hollow space from the abdominal cavity into the hindquarters. When closing up a horse, I always placed a “Time Capsule” there, in the event that this horse would ever be opened decades later. Just for fun, I thought it would be interesting to have a horse mailbox. At the same time, the Smithsonian Postal Museum was promoting a contest for the best rural mailbox. With my sister’s urging, I entered the contest and was one of the five people in the United States to win. What a kick! “Let’s Dance” is still outside my house. He is sure a handsome horse and has been giving free rides to neighbors since 1999.
My trajectory changed when I was commissioned to carve a rocking horse for a woman who loved my work. The horse I made for her children was the best horse I have ever carved. Sadly, my mind never lets me rest. I knew at that moment, I would never carve another horse. It was time to challenge myself to a new task. I moved on to furniture. Again, books were such a benefit. Over the past twenty years, I’ve made more case pieces, tables, chairs, lamps and accessories then I remember. These days, my pieces are designed for staging furniture. When I was making dressers and credenzas, weigh was not an issue, since the client would likely place that piece in their home and not move it for decades. Staging furniture is moved several times a year. It must be beautiful, but now weight is a factor in design. I love that challenge and also enjoy bringing some of my carved menagerie figures to work to transform a home into a showcase. Even though I own a real estate brokerage, in my heart I am still a woodworker. In this way, I was able to dovetail my artistic talent and skills with a challenging job to create balance in my life…..