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| site by www.artofcomputers.com featured on www.tucsonisgreat.com |
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| Most of the traditional arts, which are demonstrated here at Tucson Heritage Experience, have as their object the production of something. Paper flowers for an altar or a centerpiece, perhaps, or an Easter egg to give away, or piņatas and cascarones to help create a festive ambient at a party of celebration. The main point of traditional whittling, on the other hand, really seems to be the process itself. Most whittlers I have known, whether they create canes, figurines, or wooden chains, or simply turn a stick into a pile of shavings, talk about their skills in ways that seem to show this. The whole point seems to be the pleasure one can get when one has a knife in one hand, a piece of wood in the other, and a certain amount of knowledge and skill in one's brain and muscles. One should have control over one's tool and one's wood, of course, and the end product of all whittling demonstrates this skill, even it if is only an empty hand and a pile of regular, uniform shavings. |
| Chuck Carr is such a person, among other things. His card describes him as a music maker and custom carver, and proudly announces that he has been "manufacturing fine wood chips since 1929." Born to a fishing family in the state of Maine, Mr. Carr has lived in Southern Arizona since shortly after World War II. For most of this time, the Douglas area was his home and the location of his small business. A while back he moved to Tucson, and now lives on the Southwest side of town. Chuck likes to whittle, and has carved figurines of several well-known Cochise County characters, whose stories he likes to tell. He'll be bringing them down to the festival to talk about, but his real assignment is to carve lots of peach pits into figurines. I've seen baskets, fish, monkeys and squirrels that he's done, and I suspect he has a few more surprises up his sleeve. Welcome to Tucson Meet Yourself, Chuck, and we hope you have a peach of a time. |
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