Wood carving turns wood into artworks
- May 6, 2010
Mike Budesilich remembers sitting on the back porch in the small company town of Cowell, watching his grandfather carve farm animals from a small piece of wood.
"He carved chickens, ducks, horses, cows ..." recalled Budesilich.
The animals were common in Cowell, which is now a subdivision in Concord. After the Cowell stack was demolished last year, only a landmark street name marks where the town once existed.
Fascinated by the unlimited carving possibilities that began with whittling, Budesilich convinced his grandfather to teach him. His first creations certainly didn't have the details as his later award-winning pieces that were on display in March at the Concord Library for his lecture and presentation to the Concord Art Association (CCA).
"You don't pay attention to the animal — you pay attention to the person showing you how," he said of his early works. "When you get older, you put attention to the animal and what it should look like."
His mastery was noted by the handful of people attending the CAA lecture. In fact, a trout's scales looked so real that several of those in attendance asked to touch the piece.
Normally, Budesilich doesn't allow touching, especially before a competition, because it changes the color of the wood and the integrity of the piece. But this fish had already been judged and won a California Carving Guild Association show, so the curious audience members were free to lightly touch the fine work.
Budesilich left his grandfather's porch and moved to Concord, went to school, joined the Navy, and returned to the area to work for Pacific Gas and Electric. But his passion for wood carving was always with him, and it would become his full-time career more than 40 years after learning the skill of whittling farm animals from his grandfather.
"I wanted to get back into wood carving," said Budesilich.
So he went to Cal State East Bay in Hayward and received his teaching credential in whittle wood carver woodcraft. He then got a position, teaching wood carving in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District's adult education program. He teaches four classes at the Pleasant Hill Education Center on Santa Barbara Road.
"I've been doing it for eight or nine years," Budesilich said.
Teaching provides Budesilich a place and time to work on his own pieces, such as the fish or the "big stuff," as he calls it. His angel figure is one of those big pieces — measuring 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, and weighing 80 pounds — and it won first place in a California Carving Guild Association (CCGA) show.
One of the students, Concord resident Ross Lusiani, carves using tools with the help of fellow students to enable him to work on his pieces. Lusiani suffered a traumatic accident after returning from the Vietnam War, which cost him his right arm. Although he refuses to talk about it, Budesilich said it involved a shark.
Lusiani is now in his third semester and has already won a second-place prize for a piece he entered in a CCGA show in Pleasanton. In addition to loving the art and creating items for his wife, Lusiani said the atmosphere is much better than any of the rehabilitation or re-education classes.
"It's better than anywhere else," Lusiani said. "No one talks to me as if I'm handicapped or missing an arm."
Lusiani remembers when he was a boy and, like Budesilich, he would watch his grandfather carve. But that was a long time ago.
"When I first came here," Lusiani said, "I didn't think I could do this."
Budesilich invited him to come in and sit down at a table where a vice and some tools were set out. He then began telling everyone little tricks about carving.
"It was interesting to watch that," said Lusiani. "I took it all in."
Lusiani was hooked, and he has been attending classes ever since.
Wood carving is time consuming, say those who do it, and it is even more so when learning or teaching the art.
"It's kind of hard to find someone to take the time to teach," he said, "someone to go over and over it until they get it. Then get it into shows."
Budesilich doesn't hide his excitement for teaching woodcarving and the success his students have, whether it is regular showings of their work at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, or carved pilgrims to adorn their Thanksgiving tables, or even carved wine goblets.
Last holiday season, Bill Morris of Concord made wine goblets for a few family members, which caused a demand from others. So, he is making more, using dark wood for red wine and lightwood for white wine. He's also made an abundance of bottle stoppers and coasters.
"What are we going to do with all this stuff?" he said his wife asks him.
Not only does Morris work on small pieces, he also carves large ones, such as a dolphin — a work still in progress.
Although the Mt. Diablo school district's adult education wood carving class may be the only one in Northern California, Budesilich worries that ongoing financial woes at the state level may whittle down his opportunities to teach his passion for wood carving to others.