Each year at the annual CCA Caricature Caving Competition ~ http://www.cca-carvers.org/  ~ held in Converse, Indiana one CCA member carves the Best of Show Trophy to be awarded to the winner of that distinction.  This is my year to carve the trophy which is a carving of a Hobo holding a very large Blue Ribbon which is mounted on a cherry plaque which was wood burned by Rich Smithson of Helvie Knives.

Every carving project is a learning experience even though the subject may have been carved many times in various pose designs as is the case with this Hobo.  With every carving learning experience during the carving process there comes a feeling that the project will not turn out as the carver envisions. When this happens, as it does often in the beginning stages of the carving journey, this anxiety invites the creative sub consciousness of the carver to silently guide the carving process to resolve this struggle into a positive continuation towards the mental image first envisioned.  It is this creative tension which guides the carver through the journey of the unknown into the discovery of what can be.

The key is to “trust the process” by allowing one’s creative sub conscious to “work things out” as it has in the past in previous carving learning experiences.   Sometimes “sleeping on it” will set creativity free to offer guidance upon returning to the carving activity.  Sometimes it is simply a matter of setting the carving project aside for a while by taking a break and coming back to look at the project with fresh eyes. Or it could happen by looking at the project upside down, from a distance, in the reflection of a mirror or taking a picture of the project to see it in a different format.  Like all discoveries within the creative journey, the process cannot be rushed or forced but can be encouraged until an “aha! moment” occurs and it will occur.  Trust the process.

Even after having carved several hobos before and with over forty years of carving experience, yet with almost every new carving project there is that initial tug and pull of anxiousness that struggles with a short period of uncertainty while waiting for creativity to awaken within one’s sub conscious.  Perhaps what is happening is that the carving itself is trying to take on a life of its own even while it is hidden in the block of wood. Trusting the process is to allow for a better carving to develop as one learns again that the more one carves the better one carves while trusting the sub conscious creativity.

The Hobo was carved using three Wood Bee Carver Signature Series knives made by Helvie knives.  Pictured with the hobo are the Bumble BEE # 13 knife, the Hornet BEE # 10 Knife and the Mini Mertz II # 6-2 BH knife. The most time consuming part of this carving was removing the wood between the back of the blue ribbon and shaping the front of the hobo in that tight area. The plaid lines and stitches of the patches were wood burned and then artist oil paint thinned with boiled linseed oil colored the hobo.  Deft was applied as the finish for both the hobo carving and the cherry plaque.

Now that the trophy carving is ready to be awarded to the deserving Best of Show winner of the 2014 Caricature Carving Competition, the inner tug of creativity is in the “getting ready” to carve the next carving project whatever it might be. “Woodcarving is the journey more than the destination,” which means it is the “carving process” that brings the better satisfaction to the carver rather than the finished trophy of one’s carving activity.  The journey is to learn all over again for the first time the partnership of creativity working with ability to bring to life another carving hidden in a block of wood.  It is that discovery that makes woodcarving a “must do ~ can do no other” inspiration to carve wood.