WoodBeeCarver

DERBY DINGUS McGee is an original carving by Lynn Doughty.  My wife, Frances, gave me this carving as a gift this Christmas.  What a pleasant surprise.  In other years I received two lumps of coal, but this year I received a “Doughty.”  Am I a good boy or what?

Gifts are  special and some are more special because they continue to give. Love is a gift that keeps on giving.  Friendship is a gift that keeps on giving.  Memory is a gift that keeps on giving.  Woodcarving is a gift that keeps on giving.  Combining all of these becomes yet another gift that continues to give.

Lynn Doughty is a wood carving friend that I first met through the pages of Chip Chats while admiring photographs of his carvings.  The second time I met Lynn was about ten years ago when we participated  together in the Dollywood Showcase Carving Show.

During a carving contest at Dollywood I observed for the first time “Old Reliable”, the box cutter Lynn uses in his carving.

The next time I met Lynn was the next summer when Frances and I visited Lynn and his wife Judy at their Out West Gallery and “Ranch” near Jay, Oklahoma.  Their gracious hospitality coupled with a first hand tour of the Gallery and work shop, conversations about wood carving,  visiting the horses and iced tea on the front porch of their ranch house became a gift of memory often revisited.

A couple years later Lynn was the featured carver at the Dayton, Ohio Artistry in Wood Show and has been an participant ever since.  As participants at that same show, Frances and I can visit again with Lynn and Judy and see his amazing carving creations.

OUT WEST carvings by Lynn Doughty, be they an individual carving or a scene, tell a story that brings a smile and a chuckle.  Even more so, a Doughty caricature is unique in that each bears Lynn’s signature carving style and artistic interpretation.  How does he do it? 

 Well, Lynn is very generous with his art in that he gives the gift of his knowledge and experience to the wood carving world through his instructional blog site that can be visited at:     http://outwestwoodcarving.blogspot.com/      along with visiting his web site at www.outwestgallery.com 

Lynn is a pioneer and trail blazer in developing an instructional blog site dedicated to woodcarving that is the best on the internet made so because of  his “gift of woodcarving friendship.”  Lynn inspired me to publish my own blog.

 Lynn’s blog site posting for September 24, 2008 and October 1, 2008 features DERBY DINGUS McGEE who came to live with me as a gift of love from my wife, Frances. 

No one can carve like Lynn as his unique style of caricature carving bears his own signature and yet his “signature name” makes it official as well as original.

Lynn honored me with a “gift of friendship” carving of my likeness in the Doughty Style at the 2008 Dayton Artistry in Wood show.  The “gift of friendship” given in the “gift of woodcarving” creates a “gift of memory” that continues to give.

Now there are two Derby wearing caricature carvings by Lynn Doughty that live with my collection of the “gifts of love, gifts of friendship, gifts of woodcarving and gifts of memory” all of which continue to give inspiration, humility and gratitude. 

 Thanks for the Memory.

This blank block of wood symbolizes the beginning of a new year filled with unknown possibilities.  Every carving project begins in a new block of wood that awaits the carver’s tools of inspiration, creative ideas and ability to try. 

 Even with the best  plan, pattern or idea, as the carving project continues there are creative changes that occur to add serendipity discoveries. The carver approaches the new carving project with hope and anxiousness allowing hope to overcome doubt  and thus experience  possibility. 

A New Year and a block of wood await our imagination to try by going into the great unknown with a confidence that no matter what comes, we can and we will carve a niche of happy optimism.

  Carvers have experienced almost with every carving project that at the beginning stages of the project there is a pessimism that the project is not developing or is headed for a mess.  But as the carving continues, the carver experiences a serendipity of optimism that sees a creation of beauty coming out of the mess. 

 I often say, “Woodcarving is agony and ecstasy.  But ecstasy always follows the agony”  by which I mean that if we keep at it, be it carving or life, out of the struggle and agony there will come an ecstasy of optimism that recognizes that beauty comes out of the struggle.

The saddest words ever spoken are “It might have been,” uttered by those who never tried or never got around to doing their good intentions.  Wood carvers should ask themselves why they have so many carving projects waiting to be carved.  Is the answer one of not trying, of waiting until things are just right or of being afraid one will mess up? 

Woodcarving is something we learn by doing and if in the doing a mistake happens, so be it, since a mistake is only a learning experience.  Some of life’s greatest discoveries have been found in mistakes.  Relax, carve the blank block of wood remembering that it is only wood, a learning piece that will come out so much better than one may think at the beginning of the “agony” stage of carving.  “Ecstasy” will come so be adventurous and carve on.

With a New Year and a new block of wood determine to carve more this year, determine to participate in a carving club or group,  determine to take a carving class or two, determine to carve that challenging project you have always wanted to try,  determine to enter carvings in a wood carving show and competition and determine to carve towards “ecstasy” rather than stopping at the road block of “agony.”

“The hardest part of any project is getting started,” is an observation I have made over the years.  Once a project is finally started one is very surprised at how the creative juices join our efforts to create a carving of merit with a lament for not starting sooner.

  My suggestion for woodcarvers who find themselves at loose ends to get started is to carve at lease twenty minutes each day.  It is what I call the “Twenty Minute Work Out” by taking a piece of wood and putting a sharp tool to the wood to practice the feel of carving.  It could be a simple whittling exercise or taking a # 3 gouge or a “V” tool and seeing what all one can make the tool do.  The next time try a # 5 or a #7 or #9 and do the same. 

 Two things will be accomplished in these “Twenty Minute Work Outs” with the first being getting the dexterity feel of the hand-to-tool working together in creating various cuts, thus learning what all the tool can do.  The second thing experienced will be that the creative sub-conscious will join in the carving exercise causing that twenty minute exercise to develop into a carving project.  Many of these “Twenty Minute Work Outs” will grow into longer carving sessions.

I often say “Carving is my escape to sanity,” for any time of creativity becomes time well invested for the mind, spirit and heart to harmonize with hope, optimism and possibility.

A New Year and a blank block of wood await us.  May we begin each with hope, optimism and the possibility of trying and it will be a better year.   Remember The Wood Bee Carver’s philosophy:  “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood.” 

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

This FRIENDSHIP CARVING TREE  contains carved wooden ornaments collected over the years.  Each one contains a memory of the person who carved an ornament as a way of remembering those who decorate our lives with friendship.  Each represents an unique style of creativity that can only be demonstrated in the individuality of personality of the carver.  Each ornament has a story to tell of the generosity of friendship which like all Christmas memories is a sentimental journey.

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These ornaments and carvers identified are surrounded by many other ornaments carved by other friends like Cliff Reeder, John Niggemeyer, Don Worley and the late George Stewart.  The FRIENDSHIP CARVING TREE  will sprout more ornaments in the days ahead because woodcarving friendships are continuously growing to produce the fruits of carved memories.