When undertaking a carving I ask my patron what images they may like me to carve. I talk to them about their family, their industry, their ancestry to find images and themes. To my surprise, this question is a stumper. So I ask my patrons spouse, kids, grandkids, friends and anybody else, but I typically get negligible input. Initially in Ingomar I received the customary response, but a few days after asking my host’s son, he said, “Can you carve people?”
“I guess so,” I said unenthusiastically.
“Could you carve my grandparents wedding photo?”
“Ah……………………..I guess so.”
A few days later a copy of the photo was brought out to the ranch and I set to work. In the wedding photo the background was very dark, and they both wore very dark colors.. No scanner, no negative. Suffice to say it was a challenge.
The couple were married the same day that the bride arrived from Czechoslovakia. The groom and his brother arrived several years in advance and got adjoining half sections (320 acres each) to homestead. My host’s parents lost the homestead on a seed loan in the 30’s. They leased back the lost section from the state and lived in the homestead until it burned down one Sunday morning. They’d bought an adjoining section to farm in the meantime, and they moved a house from town onto that section just below the hills. They had 8 kids and were married 50 years.
Earlier post of the couple’s hands.
Archival photographic print of the couple’s hands.