|
|
|
Here's My Woodcarving!
By Michael Yankowski
Natchitoches, LA
|
|
|
It all started with a pocket knife in the third grade (those were the good old days). Then on to whittling
neckerchief slides as a 14 year old Boy Scout.
My big jump came at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I took woodworking with Skip
Johnson. Perhaps my most influential mentor was Bill Bryant, a fellow professor and dulcimer builder
at Northwestern State University, Louisiana, where I have taught for thirty five years. Opportunities to
learn have included carousel carving in Chattanooga, totem pole carving in Ketchikan, and figure carving at
the Geisel Moroder carving school in Austria.
I concentrate on fine art sculptures which I exhibit at the Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans and
I participate in National and International competitions. Receiving an artists sponsorship from the
Louisiana Endowment for the Arts in 2000 fully outfitted my studio. I have built acoustic guitars out of
exotic woods and worked at chip carving (my kids said I needed something to keep busy on family
beach vacations). Furniture is often requested from family members.
I enjoy working in wood because it is renewable and has such variety of colors and grain. My friend
Charles has a Wood Miser which gives me access to local wood such as Gingko Bilbao, Loblolly Pine and
Cypress.
Michael can be reached directly via email at
Yankowskim@bellsouth.net
. You can also visit his
website
.
Return to the
Wood News Online
front page
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carving Submissions
Would you like for your carvings to appear in this column? We invite you to
SEND US PHOTOS
of your woodcarving projects along with captions and a brief history
and description of your woodworking. (Email photos at 800x600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store credit redeemable towards merchandise if we show your carving in a future issue.
Click here to submit
your carvings
|
Show Us Your Woodcarving
Archive Gallery
Want to see more carvings? Check out our gallery of past Show Us Your Woodcarving columns from previous issues of Wood News Online.
Click here to view our archive gallery
|
|
|
