I grew up on a farm in Illinois where my father taught me the pride of working with my hands and my grandfather, who made wooden shoes in Belgium, passed on his talent for working with wood. I am primarily self-taught and have been carving for nearly 40 years. I owe my start in woodcarving to my seventh grade shop teacher. He gave me a cutout of a swan and handed me a pocket knife. That was the start of my love for wood carving.

My wife, Kathy, and I enjoy historic events where I demonstrate wood carving or coopering while she hand pieces quilts.

I have won many awards for my relief scenes and chose to start making eagles to put my girls through college. My oldest daughter, Lisa, is working on her doctorate in English. Emily, my second daughter, graduated with degrees in vocal performance and communications. Karen, my youngest daughter, graduated with a master's degree in fashion history.

Your purchase of my work is greatly appreciated by my girls.

I have enjoyed wood carving for over 40 years. My first carving was a stylized swan I made in 7th grade shop class. Since then I have made carvings for gifts, for fun of it and for sale. My whole journey has been fun and rewarding. There is a special feeling I get when I work with my hands and create something from just a piece of wood.

In this day of mass-produced foreign items, I commit to doing all the work myself using just hand tools. My goal is to give each customer a quality, hand made, one of a kind carving, that they can be proud to show their friends and family.

I take inspiration from historic pieces, but add my own style to each carving. I choose to leave the tool marks and some areas of natural wood on each piece to show its non mass-produiced or molded origins.

My work spans the arena of home decorations, wooden ship decorations, signage, and architectural reconstruction. I have received many dirrerent awards through out my career, taught classes and writen articles, but my favorite thing to do is carve.

My work ethic can be summed up in these words: