Jack Nortz (continued)…

Upon returning from the Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, to my home town of Syracuse, New York, I was excited about trying my hand at wood carving.  I had seen a wood carving that had inspired me and I was ready to see if this was something that I could actually master.  My problem was where to find a course that was available.  You have to remember that this was pre-computer days.  I couldn’t just Google it.  I called some of the local Universities and Junior Colleges (yes, we had telephones), but came up empty.

Then one day I was at one of the local malls and there was an art show going on so I decided to check it out.  I came around a corner and there was a wood carver.  Beautiful stuff.  The sculptor’s name was Tim Curley and he carved drift wood.  He would take a piece of driftwood, study it and determine what he should carve into it.  It could be a face of a bearded man or an animal perched near the top ready to pounce.  It took imagination and skill and I loved his work.  I told him I wanted to learn to do what he did and wanted to know if he would take me on as a student.  He told me he never took on students, but I persisted.  To get rid of me he told me that he would give me a lifetime course for $300.  Now $300 was a lot of money in 1976, but I didn’t give it a second thought.  I went to the bank, got the money and showed up the next day with the cash.  He was shocked to see me, but he sat me down right there in the mall, gave me a small piece of driftwood and a box knife and said, “Carve something.”  That day I became a wood carver. 

My goal : Make my $300 back by doing wood carving!

Check out some of what I do now. Here