I'm a native of Hopwood, Pennsylvania, a small town in the southwestern corner of the Keystone State, and although I've moved around a bit, I'm fortunate to have lived most of my life in the Appalachian Mountains.

As a Boy Scout, I was inspired to try woodcarving by my scoutmaster's skill and enthusiasm for the craft. With a set of knives that my parents gave me for my birthday, I earned my first merit badge, woodcarving, in 1967.

My career as a woodcarver began years later while I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I began selling wooden spoons, carved with the same set of knives from Boy Scouts. With money I made from these sales, I bought a set of chisels and gouges along with a wooden mallet. Three years later, in 1982, I abandoned a science career to follow the life of a craftsman, moving back east the following year.

An early interest in American folk carving characterized my work for the first decade and it was mostly of a realistic style and detailed. I used only traditional hand tools over this era, which made it more difficult to make a living, but the proficiency I gained with them has served me well ever since.

As power tools entered the picture, my work expanded and evolved through many styles and subjects to a more contemporary form, characterized by simple lines with the beauty of the wood an integral part of each composition. Early on, black walnut, a tree that is indigenous to the Appalachian Mountains, emerged as my wood of choice and remains so to this day.

For fifteen years, I lived and worked in an old log house in Grantsville, Maryland, The Fuller Baker Log House. During that era I sold mostly spoons and smaller pieces to make a living, all the while, honing my woodcarving skills and widening my repertoire.

In 1999, I took a big step, moving to Waynesville, North Carolina and opening a gallery on Main Street. During this era I learned a lot about business and a little about success, but I often yearned for the more obscure and simpler days at the log house.

The gallery was closed at the end of 2007, and shortly after, I purchased a house and a small building located on an acre of land along Walnut Creek near Marshall, North Carolina. The building, which was built many years before to be a general store, has been converted into a workshop and gallery. Along with a comfortable little house to the north and Walnut Creek, bordering the property to the east, I've never worked in a nicer setting.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. You should mind your own business and work with your hands, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Thessalonians 4:11-12

To have a great capital is not so necessary as to know how to manage a small one and never to be without a little. It is not large funds that are wanted, but a constant supply, like a small stream that never dies.

William Cooper, A Guide in the Wilderness,1810

When the sun rises, I go to work;
When the sun goes down, I take my rest;
I dig the well from which I drink,
I farm the soil that yields my food.
I share creation, Kings can do no more.

Chinese Proverb, 2500 B.C.E.

Solitude is independence.
It had been my wish and with the years I have attained it.

Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

When we know how to be at peace, we find that art is a wonderful way to share our peacefulness.

Thich Nhat Hanh