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.