Creative Woodworks & crafts 1999-10, страница 42

John Burke gives each of the carvers in his seminars and workshops personal attention.

"You never learn from doing right all the time, you have to make mistakes."—John Burke

These words snatched my attention away from the inspiring sculptures taking shape before my eyes. The class, filled with curiosity and excitement, huddled around Burke as he explained that carving is an investigative process, one which requires the artist to challenge limitations and defy the fear that imprisons creativity.

Advice so saturated with experience couldn't possibly have come from a man who was grudgingly coaxed into whittling fay a friend—or could it? About eighteen years ago, a machinist from Crete, Nebraska named John Burke picked up a block' of wood and a knife for the first time as a result of a friend's persistence.

"Every time I would go over there he would say 'I ley John, let's try some of this.' 1 really had no interest in it," Burke recalls.

"One day I started working with it. I didn't think it was all that much fun; being new al it I cut myself a lot." He went on, "1 thought, this isn't really that great a deal."

After a disappointing start, Burke decided to lake a carving class that focused more on wood sculpture than on small whittled caricatures.

Burke remembers his first impression. "I thought, jeeze as long as I keep that out in front of me I'm not gonna cut myself nearly as much."

Burke was not only thrilled with the practical side of working with large carving tools, but sculpture also offered a sense of romance that captivated him. He soon found himself spending hours upon hours in his basement shop, sometimes well into the night. The lack of instructional help available at that time required Burke to learn through his own experimentation and risk taking.

"I struggled like that for many years," he confessed,

42

MASTER CARVER JOHN BURKE-IN PERSON

by Dana Rich

"until I finally broke down and went to a clay sculptural class with a more established western artist."

The training he received there proved to be invaluable throughout his carving career. Tecliniques for structure and molding have resurfaced not only in his carvings, but in his teaching methods as well.

"Alter that, my progress was quite rapid. I look back now; some people have my earlier works and 1 think 'Oh God,' when al the time 1 thought they were great."

Burke found lhat he prefers hand carving over using power tools. He told us, "Basically, the only power carving I do is to remove large quantities of wood."

About six years into his carving career Burke was pre sen ted with the opportunity to do some teaching. To his amazement, he found liimself getting more satisfaction from passing his knowledge on than he did from working to advance his own carving skills.

The past twelve years of Burke's career have been almost entirely devoted to teaching. Traveling all over the country, he teaches an average of twenty to twenty-five seminars and workshops per year.

"I Iry to bring people up., not In the top, but up another level," Burke explains. Though he loves teaching, he had to admit ''It has its disadvantages because...everything has to be contained within a formal that everybody can do. 1 don't get a chance to explore much outside that format."

Burke's seminars and workshops have aided many wood carvers in their ascent, some only to the next skill level, and some to the heiyhts of national recognition.

"T have several students who have become full-time wood carvers," Burke told us. "Rex Branson, in his early days, had classes with me, and Jeff Phares is a former student of mine."

Though these carvers may have diverted their specialties away from certain techniques taught to them as novice artists, Burke notes, "It is very gratifying to see them do so well and that I was able to help them in their formative years."

Burke's workshops offer more than .just a finished sculpture; they present the student with a simple philosophy of carving that serves as a guide throughout their journey of skill improvement. Burke believes, 'There arc two components; learning how to rough it out; and learning how to do the detail."

Due to the limited amount of time allotted for the workshops. each student is supplied with a mummy-shaped rough out, usually Prom butternut. "Nothing detailed, all it does is kind of shape it so that we can get in and actually do it in three days," Burke explains.

The versatility of butternut makes it Burke's stock of choice. It's stable, readily available, and most important, can be carved wet. He buys 4' long 8" x 8" pieces of what is called the "cant." The cant is, essentially, the core of the tree. This is what is left once all the dimensional lumber has been cut from it. "I go through so much of it; I might use up two hundred 4' picccs in a year," Burke said. " There is no way I could gel dry wood."

The rough outs are made on a machine built by Bnrke for the sole purpose of aiding his students and are nol available commercially.

Creative Woodworks & Crafts