Creative Woodworks & crafts 1999-10, страница 43

In fact Burke only makes enough rough outs for his students, then destroys the pattern. Unlike many instructors, he keeps his material fresh and personalized. He explains, "I never repeat my patterns, f have a strict rule—about every six months 1 take all my patterns and [throw them out)."

Burke's vivid imagination seems to infiltrate every facet of his carving, right down to his choice of subjects. He notes, "1 never carve animals; the scope you have for them is so narrow." He explained that when carving a dog, it must look like a dog, thus limiting the amount of creative influence the carver can have. Burke laughs, "With people, no matter what you end up with, somebody in the past, now or in the future has, will or does look like what you created."

Burke enjoys working with distortion. Elongated noses, bent ears, and puffed out cheeks all add character and mood to a carving that is difficult to create on an animal. Though people are Burke's preference, he maintains, "I love well done animals. I admire it greatly, it's just not something I want to do."

Burke's love and admiration for all types of carving and wood sculpture inspired his six-day Western & Wildlife Art Workshop held in July at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. Every year Burke and his wife, Nancy, lease the entire college for a series of seminars and workshops. Classes in both hand and power carving offer a range of subjects from caricatures to realistic bust carvings. Students are given the opportunity to explore a variety of mediums including juniper and moose antlers. Also offered at the resident program are classes in painting, basketweaving, stone sculpture, and mask making.

Burke's voyage from reluctant whittler to master carver has endowed him with an artistic understanding that few possess. His candid approach to instruction and his spontaneous nature have inspired both novice and expert carvers to venture outside of their own boundaries. As Burke said, 'I've never seen a carver take loo much off, but if you do, it might be kind of fun to figure out what to do next."

For more information on the Western & Wildlife Art Workshop contact John Burke at 868 County Road No. 1, Ithaca, NE 68033; (402) 623-4292.

**For a schedule of classes or more information on The American Woodcarving School located in Wayne, New Jersey, contact hric Burin at (973)835-8510. |i

John Burke supplies his students with a butternut blank. Six months after the workshop Burke destroys all of his patterns, making commercial reproduction of his blanks impossible.

Norman Slagg and Ron Singerman, a professional carver from Vermont, learning to carve a Civil War Soldier at Burke's latest workshop held at The American Woodcarving School.

The subject of one of Burke's workshops: How To Carve A Mountain Man, held at The American Woodcarving School in Wayne, NJ. Over the past twelve years, Burke has taught over fifteen workshops and seminars at the school.