To Give Credit Where Credit is Due

I have decided that in order to properly showcase my dad's amazing talent, I would create a blog dedicated to his carving endeavors. My father is a disabled Vietnam Marine Vet who has found an outlet for his "forced" early-retirement. Carving became a hobby for my father long before his disability surfaced. He started carving by hand in the early 1990's. His skill for carving songbirds and small animals was, in my humble opinion, amazing. In 1996 he took on the daunting task of chainsaw carving. His first carving took him weeks to perfect, but after that was completed he was bit by the chainsaw carving bug. Over the next several years, he "puttered around" with the art while working full-time on his "real" job. In 1999, he began carving on a full-time basis while he and my mother ran their gift shop in Branson, Missouri. At this point carving became his passion. In 2006, he battled, and defeated, cancer. He didn't return from the battle unscathed. He lost his larynx to the disease, but pushed on and learned to talk with a prosthetic voice-box. He beat the odds and never let it get him down. After recovering from surgery, he knew he could never return to his previous careers, but he was able to continue carving. Carving became his therapy. It keeps him strong and young despite the fact that he cannot work. He has been able to take part in several carving exhibitions over the past year and as long as he is able to lift that chainsaw I am certain he will be taking part in several more in the coming years. I will be posting pictures that I have captured at these events. Please enjoy and check back often to see where his passion takes him next!