James Gray

Chainsaw Carvings

One of the artists exhibiting at the Miles B. Carpenter Outdoor Folk Art Festival was James Gray from Boykins, Virginia.  Much of his work is monolithic in nature, carved from the trunks of trees.  Initially, a chainsaw is used to shape the wood.  As can be seen in the photographs including Gray, much of his work is quite large (and heavy).  Other work is smaller and often technological.

James Gray, a native of Boykins, Virginia in Southampton County, began his career in 1977 teaching agricultural education in Suffolk City Public Schools.  After teaching agriculture for six years, he continued teaching with the Department of Corrections in Capron, VA.  Gray retired in 2009 after teaching welding for eight years and adult basic education for eighteen years.  Working part-time, he now is an adult basic education teacher at Sussex II Correction Center in Waverly, VA.

Always skillful working with his hands, Gray related that he never developed his full potential because he was lacking skills in using hand tools.  He began sculpting wood in 2010 using an electric chainsaw.  The World was his first sculpture and was a stimulus for further interest in carving with chainsaws.

To make Spiral Log, Gray removed the bark with a hammer and chisel with the log standing vertically.  Starting from the bottom, he wrapped a rope in a spiral around the log and traced it to form an outline.  The log was then laid horizontally, sanded, and a chainsaw was used to remove wood.  The finished project was similarly treated with preservative and varnish was applied.  It is seven feet tall.

Small images of carvings and other objects

Inspiration for Happy Bear came from an image of a similar bear carved by another artist and seen on the internet.  Gray developed his own techniques and used auto body filler for the bear’s tongue and marbles for its eyes.  He carved the bear beginning at the top and worked to the bottom with a chainsaw.  A blowtorch was used to give the fur its dark brown coloring.  The bear was carved beginning from top to bottom with the chainsaw.  The completed sculpture was treated with Cabot Wood Preservative and coats of varnish were added after the preservative had dried.

Hear My Cry evolved as Gray began cutting on a log with a chainsaw.  First, he carved a hollow in one side of the log; then, seeing this was empty space, he decided to add a foot.  After that, a mouth with teeth was added.  The mouth accurately depicts thirty-two teeth.  As with Happy Bear, the tongue is made with auto body filler.  Next, Gray added one ear, one eye, and one hand because he had begun with only one foot.

An image on the internet also inspired The Whole World in His Hand.  The hands and globe were carved separately with a spring on each side joining them.  He used sweetgum wood for the globe and cedar for the hands.  To construct the hands, Gray used a chainsaw, circular saw, and jigsaw.  Fingernails were made of auto body filler.

The hourglass is made from two glass liter soda bottles joined together with a piece of walnut.  Gray used a bit the same diameter as the necks of the bottles to drill the area for the bottles to join.  To regulate the flow of sand, he left one-fourth inch of space between each hole drilled; then, a center hole one-eight inch was drilled through holes of the neck.  Fine sand blown onto a highway from fields was collected.  The timing of the hourglass is ninety minutes.  The outer frame is made of white oak.  All wood has a polyurethane finish.

Miles Carpenter Outdoor Folk Art Festival

Miles B. Carpenter

Outdoor Folk Art Festival

Saturday, May 12, 2012

10 a.m. until…

Celebrate Miles Carpenter’s birthday!

Artists displaying and selling

folk art and traditional art

Food for sale

Chicken salad    Chili    Hot dogs

Bake sale

 

Plant sale

Bluegrass and country music

at the natural amphitheatre

Bring a lawn chair or blanket

Visit the Folk Art Museum,

the Country Store, the Peanut Museum,

and the Wood Products Museum

Located on Route 460 West

near the intersection with Route 40

Waverly, Virginia

Miles Carpenter, Part 2

Tidewater Times article, 1981

 (Host's note:  Anne Ashworth was a sophomore in high school when she wrote this article.  Miles Carpenter died in 1985.)

By Anne Ashworth

Thursday, May 28, 1981

Miles Carpenter, 92 years of age, has not always been carving creative objects.  Since he moved to Waverly in 1912, Mr. Carpenter has led and active and varied existence.  He came to the town to start a sawmill operation.  He has also operated an open-air theatre and an icehouse.

Mr. Carpenter started carving in 1940.  Because the sawmill business was slow, he started carving to busy himself.  He carved for a few years and then quit until 1955.

In 1970, Jeffrey Camp, a collector and art dealer, passed by Carpenter’s icehouse and noticed some of his carvings.  He stopped and asked Carpenter if he would be willing to sell some of his work.  Mr. Carpenter agreed and Camp introduced Miles Carpenter’s creations to the world.

Mr. Carpenter’s work has been placed in many museums.  These include, the Museum of International Folk Art in Sante Fe, New Mexico, Williamsburg’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, and in a collection of the Chase Manhattan Bank.  His work was featured in LIFE magazine, Antiques magazine, and in the pages of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

When asked about being in LIFE magazine, Carpenter replied, “If you’re famous enough to get in LIFE magazine, you are pretty famous.”

Although he is well respected in the art world, it does not seem to go to his head.  He is a pleasant man and very honest about his work.  The wood that Mr. Carpenter uses for his work is usually found in the scrap pile or friends bring him odd pieces found in the woods.  He often can visualize an image in the wood and just carves it out.  He uses all hand tools except for an electric grinder and a small sander.

Some of his carving is done in a chair by a wood stove in the kitchen.  In this comfortable setting, he has created many outstanding and fanciful creatures.

His first and favorite [major] carving is a woman and greyhound.  The idea came from a Greyhound Bus Line advertisement from about 1940.  When interviewed, Mr. Carpenter had just finished two new women and greyhounds.  These were excellent, but they could not possibly top his first carving of the same figures.

It took him six weeks to carve the first young woman and dog.  The new works required about two months to complete.  Mr. Carpenter informed that the faces of the women take the longest time to carve.  Each of his small birds require four to five hours of work; he can make about two a day.

Watermelon slices are carved in all sizes.  Mr. Carpenter believes he created the interest in watermelon slices.  His slices can be recognized by the fact that the bite is taken out of the side of the slice rather than the middle.

In 1980, Mr. Carpenter carved Miss Lena Wood.  Her name is Lena because she is so thin; and, of course, she is made of Wood.  She is life size and sits in Mr. Carpenter’s 1951 Chevrolet.  Miss Wood rides with him everywhere he goes.  Mr. Carpenter is a completely fascinating gentleman; he is extremely entertaining.  His home is filled with exotic and familiar creations.  Visiting Mr. Carpenter is a wonderful experience; it must be somewhat like visiting the workshop at the North Pole.

Photography by the blog host

From the Tidewater Arts section of

The Tidewater Times

Published by

the Student Government Association

Tidewater Academy

Wakefield, Virginia

Source

Ashworth, Anne.  "Miles Carpenter."  Tidewater Times [Wakefield, Virginia] 28 May 1981, sec. Arts: 5-8.  Print.

Howard Boone

Contemporary Woodcarver

Howard Boone is a contemporary woodcarver from the Franklin, Virginia area.  Like Miles Carpenter, much of his work includes birds.  Unlike Carpenter, Mr. Boone’s birds are mostly small and fairly realistic, although some are larger and more detailed.  Boone has begun carving mammals and has created a giraffe that any folk art collector would be pleased to have in his collection.

Born in August 1928, Boone retired in 1965 from the sheet mill at Union Camp Corporation.  He has carved for at least sixty years but became more dedicated since retirement.  Carving “…was just something to do, something to pass the time,” Boone explained.  “It’s just a hobby.  I can’t just sit around like a lot of people.  When they retire, they retire.  When I retire, I don’t.  I just took a hobby.  I just took it up and did it.  That’s all I know.  No training or nothing.  I took it up on my own.  I started with ducks; then I started making birds.  And I been experimenting a bit on animals….  But I haven’t been doing much on those yet.  I’m not satisfied with them.”

Boone lives in the Edgehill neighborhood outside Franklin in Southampton County.  He located there after his previous home in Kingsdale was flooded nearly to the ceiling in the flood following Hurricane Floyd in 1999.  His workshop is located in a small shed behind his house.  It has electricity; a kerosene heater provides heat and there is an air conditioner in a window.  His carvings are kept in many cardboard boxes in a loosely organized filing system.

At the time of an interview conducted for this paper, Mr. Boone was working on turkeys and small hummingbirds.  He complained about the wood available now.  “I was working on some of them the other day.  The wood is too splintery.  Trying to drill a hole in there to put the wing and just started splintering.”  He prefers cypress but it is largely unavailable now.  “White pine works pretty good.  Fir.  Something like that.  Hardwood is too hard to cut.  You can’t cut it.  And [most] pine, it’s got big grain in it.  When you cut it and sand it, it’s going to be ridged.  It’s not going to be smooth.” 

The blade of his favorite pocketknife is worn down to a thin edge.  He also uses a band saw and a Dremel tool to make birds pictured in a heavily worn book of birds and other animals.  He draws outlines of what he wants to make on a block of wood and cuts out a basic shape with the band saw.  He continues, “Take the band saw and cut the edges a little bit.  Kinda round it a little bit.  Then you got to do the rest with the knife.  Then you got to use the Dremel tool to sand it down.  I done wore out four of them.”   [Referring to Dremel tools.]   He indicated that carving curved necks is difficult, and he often pieces two parts together using small metal rods as interior supports.

He buys acrylic, water-based craft paints from Walmart and occasionally mixes colors, but frequently is able to find the color he wants in small bottles.  He uses “…just regular art brushes … small art brushes.”  Each bird takes about two days to make – one for carving and one for painting.  “I always find the color ones first.  I don’t ever make many females.  Males, most all of them are males.  Females don’t have many colors.  People don’t know that, but females don’t have no color.  Most of them are plain.”

Asked if there were something different he would like to make, he answered, “I haven’t ever thought about it.  I just think of something I think I can make.  I do it.  I’m just experimenting on the other ones, the animals now.  They seem like – if they don’t do right, I just don’t like to do it.  It it’s something I’m not familiar with….  I just do it for a hobby.  That’s all I do.”

Howard Boone is obviously dedicated to his hobby.  His collection of birds is amazing in its variety and number.  He sells carvings at nominal prices to individuals and donates others.  He made many turkeys for place setting decorations at a Thanksgiving meal at Franklin Baptist Church.  The public has a chance to buy his work at Heritage Day in Southampton County.

He gets an endorsement from his wife Jane, “I think he does a good job,” she said. “It gives him something to do since he’s retired.”

When one pleases his wife, he has done well.

Sources 

Boone, Howard.  Personal interview.  11 Feb. 2012.

"Carving a Niche."  Tidewater News [Franklin, Virginia] 29 Jan. 2012, B sec.: 1.  Print.

Mike Preddy

Chainsaw Carvings

A longtime employee of Stihl Incorporated (maker of chainsaws and outdoor power tools), Mike Preddy began carving with chainsaws in 1979.  While still employed by Stihl as a Mid-Atlantic salesman, he no longer carves and spends much of his time farming.  Although Preddy is a resident of North Carolina, he has spent considerable time in Virginia and has carved in both Isle of Wight and Southampton Counties.  Examples of his work can be found at Walters Outdoor Power Equipment (formerly Herrala Brothers) in Walters and at Parker Battery Incorporated in Franklin.  Two eagles (one large and one small) and the bust of an Indian are displayed in Walters.  They were carved as demonstration advertisements for Stihl.  The large eagle in Franklin was carved for a local doctor to memorialize his father using a tree that fell on his father’s grave during Hurricane Isabel.  Preddy’s work is often monumental in scale; both large eagles are six feet or more in height.

Preddy began carving soon after he joined Stihl.  Another older salesman was carving mushrooms and, to Preddy, it looked like fun.  He had taken some art classes in high school but had no other art training.  Soft wood including red cedar, cypress, pine as well as walnut are preferred.  Preddy uses three sizes of chain saws as needed with bars of 28, 16, and 12 inches.  Chains are kept loose to make it easier to detail special features and details.

Subject matter includes Indians and “a lot of different animals, but mostly eagles,” which are his favorite.  A blowtorch is used to accentuate details.  Finally, up to ten coats of lacquer are applied to slow down the drying process of the wood to try to prevent cracking.  Items generally take four to eight hours or more to complete – longer when detailing and lacquering are considered.  Many of his carvings were sold to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.



Preddy no longer sculpts with chainsaws or any other tools.  Asked if he anticipates making other carvings in the future, he responded, “I don’t think so.  I’m limited on time.  I started this as a hobby and ended up being another full-time job.  I just didn’t have the extra time to put into it.”

Sources

Gallagher, Ronnie.  “Chain Saw Unlikely Tool for a Sculptor.”  North Davidson Dispatch [Lexington, North Carolina] 26 Oct. 1983, <http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19831026&id=bVocAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vFIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4882,5890000>.

Preddy, Mike.  Email questionnaire.  23 Apr. 2012.

Preddy, Mike.  Telephone conversation.  12 Apr. 2012.

Everett Mayo

Boxer Turned Folk Artist

A former heavyweight boxer known as The Tornado, Everett Mayo was born in Roanoke, Virginia in 1959.  As a boxer, he was based in Richmond.  His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tilton Washington, live in Elberon.  Mayo began boxing in the army and continued boxing in a professional capacity after leaving the military.  His boxing career was cut short by a construction accident that left him legally blind in one eye.  After retiring from boxing, Mayo returned to his love of art and started producing folk art using pieces of driftwood found on riverbanks. Looking for shapes in the wood, Mayo paints birds, fish, and other animals as well as human figures.  Basically, he uses the wood as it is found rather than carving it.  His pieces range from small figures to a six-foot tall giraffe and a seven-foot long shark.



The first showing of his work was in 1993; he has since exhibited in several museums.  He participated in the Virginia Art Residency program and also provided art workshops for children in Central and Western Virginia as well as St. Helena, South Carolina.  Mayo also appeared on Gullah Gullah Island, a Nickelodeon program, with a segment highlighting his art and creativity.   He now makes his home in Galveston, Texas with his wife Sarah.

Everett Mayo Assists Children at Driftwood Workshop

Examples of Everett Mayo's Folk Art

Sources

"Driftwood Sculptures by Everett Mayo."  Lordofthewood.com.  Everett Mayo, n.d.  Web.  <http://www.lordofthewood.com/>.

Mayo, Everett.  Brochure.  Undated.

Miles Carpenter

Image of Miles Carpenter portrait courtesy of Myrna at "My Enchanted Home"

Carpenter Museum display case image courtesy of Myrna at "My Enchanted Home"

Image of Miles Carpenter's back porch courtesy of Myrna at "My Enchanted Home"

Background Information

Miles Carpenter (1889-1985) of Waverly has the widest name recognition among area woodcarvers.  His folk art includes birds and small animals as well as intricate displays of moving figures, scenes, eccentric figures, watermelons, and his self-described root monsters.  As with many folk artists, Biblical references such as Adam and Eve as well as the devil are common.  A few pieces are surprisingly modern in design.

 

Meeting Miles Carpenter

First introduced to Miles Carpenter in 1980, this writer was more than impressed by his work ethic and good humor – and especially his work.  In 1981, as sponsor of the student newspaper at Tidewater Academy, he organized a group of students who visited and interviewed Mr. Carpenter.  The man and his art fascinated the students, and it was obvious that Mr. Carpenter thoroughly enjoyed showing his work to the group.  He displayed a childish delight when operating his interactive pieces such as the sow suckling her piglets, the squirrel that ran up a tree, and the four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.  All were made of wood.

Early History and Arrival in Waverly

Miles Carpenter arrived in Waverly with his mother and father (Wayne M. and Elizabeth Burkholder Carpenter) and siblings in 1902.  He was born in 1889, the eighth of eleven children in a Mennonite family, near Brownstown in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  His father raised cattle and grew corn, hay, tobacco, and wheat on his farm.  As a sideline, he manufactured cigars.  In 1912, his father sold many of their possessions in preparation for a move to Virginia.  Furniture, necessities, and farm equipment (including wagons and buggies) were loaded on two boxcars for a one-day rail journey to Waverly.  The train trip took them down the Eastern Shore and then across the Chesapeake Bay on a rail ferry – during a storm.  His brother Lee had the harrowing experience of riding with the cattle in a cattle car to Waverly – a one-week trip.

Sawmill, Ice Plant, Open Air Theatre, Marriage

His father bought a sawmill to produce lumber he would need to build a barn, outbuildings, and to expand the house for his large family.  In 1912, Miles Carpenter felt the need to work for himself and established his own sawmill.  Ever industrious, he also ran an ice plant in conjunction with the sawmill.  Another enterprise was operation of an open-air movie theatre in a vacant lot across Route 460 from his house.  He married Elizabeth Stahl from Pennsylvania in 1915.

Near-fatal Accident

In 1917, Carpenter was nearly killed about 2 p.m. one afternoon in October when a heavy piece of wood was thrown into his face by the saw, breaking his left jaw and eye socket.  Unconscious, he was accompanied by a doctor to Richmond, but they had to wait for the 5 p.m. train.  At the hospital, he was taken to the basement where he was expected to die.  Only after he showed signs of improvement the next day was he taken to the operating room.  He was hospitalized for five weeks.

Such tenacity accompanied him throughout life.

Long-lasting Tires

Also frugality:  In 1955, he bought a set of Allstate tires for his car from a Petersburg Sears dealer.  They lasted twenty-one years and 35,000 miles.  When the dealer heard about this and inquired, Carpenter was able to produce the original receipt.  He was given a new set of free tires by the store.

Early Woodcarvings and Roadside Stand

 

Note the bull, now in the Smithsonian Institution.         

         

During idle periods at the sawmill, Carpenter carved small animals.  His dedication to woodcarving increased around 1940 when his wife admired a bear and encouraged him to make more.  After he retired from the sawmill in 1955, he continued to sell ice, soft drinks, and vegetables at his roadside stand.  His wife’s death in 1966 was devastating, but after a period of mourning, he re-devoted himself to woodcarving.  As before, some of his figures were used to attract customers.  Carpenter backed his truck up to the road and filled it with an odd assortment of his work – fanciful animals and unusual people.

Woodcarvings as Companions

 

 

Throughout the Waverly area, Miles Carpenter was well known and accepted, despite his eccentric nature.  After his wife’s death, Carpenter was accompanied in his 1951 Chevrolet Delux by Lena Wood (one of his creations wearing his late wife’s clothes) and occasional other characters, including Indian Woman (who also wore his wife’s clothing), an Indian man (considered a self portrait), and a boy.  Some theorize this group represented Carpenter and his family.

 Favorite Carving

His favorite carving, a sleek greyhound accompanied a stylishly dressed woman, was patterned after a 1940s Greyhound Bus Line advertisement.  (In 1980, he offered this sculpture for sale for $400 – unfortunately out of reach of this writer at the time.  Worth many times that price now, it is now in the permanent collection at the Carpenter Museum in Waverly.)

 

Becoming Famous

A 200-pound wooden watermelon attracted the attention of a representative of the Abby Aldrich Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg.  Later, Jeffrey Camp became an admirer of his work and then his agent.

Even in 1981, Mr. Carpenter felt the influence of fame.  It was apparent that his work developed a more manufactured look that was less three-dimensional.  He started making copies of previous work, including the woman and greyhound.  He began making many small birds, each requiring four to five hours of work.  Besides watermelon slices and monkey dogs, he is also well known for his root monsters made from twisted and gnarled tree roots.

 

“I just manufacture ’em, that’s all.  Those monsters just come out of my head.”

Another apt quote:  “There’s something in there, under the surface of every piece of wood. You don’t need no design ’cause it’s right there, you just take the bark off and if you do it good you can find something.”

Miles Carpenter died in 1985 at the age of ninety-six.  His home is now operated as a museum and is located near the intersection of Routes 40 and 460 in Waverly, Virginia.

His work is also exhibited in private collections and museums across the country, including the Smithsonian Institution.  Rarely do individual pieces become available for sale.

Sources

Ashworth, Anne.  "Miles Carpenter."  Tidewater Times [Wakefield, Virginia] 28 May 1981, sec. Arts: 5-8.  Print.

Associated Press.  "Noted Carver, Whittler Miles Carpenter Dies."  Daily Press [Newport News, Virginia] 8 May 1985, sec. D: 3.  Print.

Brewster, Todd.  "Fanciful Art of Plain Folk."  LIFE June 1980: 112-122.  Print.

Carpenter, Miles B.  Cutting the Mustard.  Tappahannock, Virginia: American Folk Art Company, 1982.  Print.

Friddell, Guy.  "Woodcarver Was a Sculptor at Heart."  Virginian-Pilot [Norfolk, Virginia] 11 May 1985, sec. B: 1, 4.  Print.

Gregson.  "Folk Art: Folk Sculpture: Devil on a Root Monster."  Luce Foundation Center For American Art.  Smithsonian American Art Museum, n.d.  Web. <http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=184671>. 

Hartigan, Lynda R. "Biography (Miles Carpenter)."  Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Smithsonian Institution, n.d.  Web. <http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=753>. 
  

Malone, Jann.  "Folk Art: Folk Sculpture: Bull's Head."  Luce Foundation Center For American Art.  Smithsonian American Art Museum, n.d.  Web. <http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=369>.

Mathis, James L.  "Folk Art: Folk Sculpture: Monkey Dog."  Luce Foundation Center For American Art.  Smithsonian American Art Museum, n.d.  Web. <http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=1483>. 

Times-Dispatch Staff.  "Miles Carpenter, Famous Folk Artist from Waverly, Dies." Richmond Times-Dispatch [Richmond, Virginia] 8 May 1985, sec. Area: 2.  Print.

Yancey, Shirley.  Telephone conversation.  16 Feb. 2012.