The drawing above was done by Don Stephenson on the back of a plastic bubble mailing envelope. Artist Don Stephenson of the Dayton, Ohio Carving Club amazes his friends and neighbors alike because whoever admires his creativity becomes an instant friend. He is very generous with his drawing art often giving a drawing to an admiring stranger as well as his many friends. He has always drawn since a young boy and benefited from art instructors who expanded his creative horizon. One of his jobs in earlier days was as an illustrator for the Yellow Pages telephone directory. His artistic creativity became very active to be able to respond to a wide variety of illustration subjects as needed for the directory. At carving meeting someone with mention an idea or a theme of a particular subject like a dragon, a skunk or a fish and Don will draw a themed illustration in the blink of an eye. Whenever he mails me some of his drawings of carving ideas he also draws on the outside of the envelopes. Early on in our friendship I gave him the moniker “The Idea Monster.”
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Posted by: woodbeecarver in Knives
In an old Western border town jail two inmates are trying to loosen a bar in the window for a planned escape. Skinny weights a mere 170 pounds and Tiny weight 230 pounds. Finally, they loosened the middle bar enough that they wiggle it out and Skinny squeezes himself through the remaining bars. Tiny tries to squeeze through but is too fat and gets stuck half way out and half way in. Thus, the old saying, “Thin is in but Fat is where it is at,” came into play.
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Imagine if you will that one day Santa is going to retire. In that imagination what will he look like and where will he make his retirement home? No one really knows but it is imagined that he would retire in warmer climate and because he is such a toy person he would be doing fun playful things in his retirement.
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Art in its various expressions including wood sculpture always uses imaginative interpretation to present the subject of interest. This carving of Conan is such an interpretation girded with written descriptions and artistic pictures to aid the imagination of the carver to create. This is the story of the carving of this interpretation of Conan the Barbarian.
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Slow and Easy Does It is the conscious way this old carver approaches the carving process. Carving this Magi was an opportunity to listen to this Wise Man as he was being carved as he reminded me to take it “slow” and “easy” in order to enjoy the journey. The photo journey of the completed Magi invites a slow and easy visual journey to study the overall views from all angles and to listen to what the Wise Man might say to us.
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