Flamingo

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"I have been somewhat surprised at the number and variety of wooden things I’ve made in my life. I had forgotten about some of them. I’ve always had a love for wood and things made of wood. This interest probably began at the tender age of 4 when I remember sitting in my father’s lap in an outdoor swing-hammock in the yard at 178 Laurel Avenue, Arlington, New Jersey, the house where I was born, while he put the finishing touches on a little sailboat he had carved for me. As the years went by that little boat went through some hard times, especially in Jordan, New York, where I raised my own children and where it was left outdoors, forgotten, and buried in dirt and snow for more than two years. The boat still exists—minus a seat, mast, and sail—with the remnants of my father’s white and red paint clinging to the dried-out, rotted hull."

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Saw-whet Owl (White Pine, painted)

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"In the cellar of my parents’ house in Arlington I began my own woodworking endeavors at the age of 10 or 11 (around 1926) while in the company of my father, who was an amateur astronomer. He ground the glass lens for an 8-inch reflecting telescope he built and spent many nights observing variable stars out in our back yard. When he was building his telescope I puttered around the workbench making simple things out of wood, among them a model of Charles Lindberg’s airplane, “The Spirit of St. Louis,” out of solid wood (which I never finished). I also made a wooden scooter using old-fashioned roller skates on each end of a length of 2 x 4 on which was mounted a wooden box with handles for support, and an “electric shock machine” out of a Ford dynamo."

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American Loon (White Pine, painted)

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"During WWII I made several items while serving as skipper on a subchaser in the South Pacific: a bracelet made of Japanese money for Zan, who I was courting by mail, a ring with a Japanese gold tooth mounted on it, an ashtray from a 40mm gun shell that I gave to my Uncle Morris (my mother’s older brother). I also made a candy dish out of a coconut shell. I sawed through the shell off-center and scooped the coconut out of each part, then sanded and polished both parts inside and out and glued the inverted pieces together so that the smaller piece became the base and the larger piece the bowl."

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Free Spirit Totem (White Pine, painted)

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"A year or so later I bought a book called Ben Hunt’s Whittling Book for a couple of dollars (today on eBay the book is listed at $85). The book showed how to carve lots of things, including the Pack Mule. The mule looked interesting so I decided to try it, using basswood. It turned out pretty well, so I made four others out of basswood and then a fifth larger one out of mahogany. I tried other ideas shown in the book, resulting in the pieces titled Moose, Neckerchief Slide, Ducks, Cormorant, Loon, and Mexican Ox-Cart (I made two each of these last two)."











"I also created several pieces from my own imagination, using Ben Hunt’s techniques. The pieces titled Lady’s Head, Thin Man, Peasant Woman, Totem Pole, Little Old Man, Flamingo, Saw-whet Owl, and Zan/Ted Sweetheart pin were carved all from my head (and there’s still some wood left over)."

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Ducks (White Pine, painted)

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"Most—but not all—the pieces have my TT mark on the bottom, along with the year made. Most were made in the mid-fifties, a period of considerable stress for me in my career. By 1956 I was trying to start my own manufacturers’ representative business in upstate New York, which required me to travel and hustle a great deal in order to drum up business. That year I moved alone from Massachusetts to Syracuse, leaving Zan in Reading with Cindy (Lucy), Nancy, and Danny in order to find a house for all of us in the Syracuse area. I rented temporary living quarters in a tiny attic in North Syracuse with a hot plate and a small box refrigerator. The ceiling was too low to allow me to stand up straight. It was there that I spent evenings doing serious carving. The Thin Man, the Lady’s Head, and the free-form Wooden Bowl were products of this period."


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Thin Man (Black Walnut)

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"One night while working on the Thin Man the knife slipped and I pierced my right wrist deeply. The blood gushed out like a broken levee. I was able to stop the flow and spent the rest of the night holding my arm up and keeping the wound from bleeding. I didn’t bother going to a doctor. The injury healed after a couple of weeks but it slowed down the carving a bit."

"I was inspired to make the Thin Man when I saw exhibited somewhere a carving that a woman had made out of pear wood. It was of a thin woman, and her feet were positioned in that unique way that I copied with Thin Man. Several years later I submitted the Thin Man to a juried committee at the Buffalo Art Museum. It was returned to me rejected, with written remarks saying: “the body is distorted for no apparent reason” and “what message are you trying to send?” It was my first and last experience with the pink slip of artdom."



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Forty-Niner Mule (African Mahogany)

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Mexican Ox Cart (White Pine, Stained)

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Scout Neckerchief Slide (White Pine, Painted)

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Moose (African Mahogany)

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Free-style Bowl (Black Walnut)

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Green Cormorant (White Pine, painted)

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Abstract Head (Black Walnut)

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Sweetheart Pin Zan/Ted (Cherry)

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Little Man (Pine)

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Peasant Woman (Black Walnut)

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"I think that most of my whittling projects were created during a time of great worry for me. Dealing with financial problems, trying to build up my business, handling family concerns—all these weighed on me. I eventually had to give up the manufacturers’ rep business because it was unprofitable. I was fortunate to connect with Cryovac and went to work with them in 1964 or so. We moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1968."

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