Susan

 Join me for A Brush With Life. I'm your host, Susan Waughtal. We'll be talking to artists and musicians, inventors and farmers, and other fascinating folks. We'll hear their stories of their successes and challenges, dreams and inspirations. Get ready for A Close Encounter of the Creative Kind.

 Kevin Ewing carved his first piece of wood during his honeymoon. It was supposed to be a skiing honeymoon in northern Minnesota, but there was no snow, so he purchased a set of chisels and a block of wood and carved an angel, a tree topper for the first Christmas with his new wife, Janet.

46 years later, that angel still tops the family Christmas tree every year. Most of his life, Kevin has worked as an educator, but he used wood carving as a way to relax after a hard day teaching. Now that he's retired, Kevin is devoting himself full-time to woodworking and wood carving, and oh, what beautiful carvings.

They're so detailed, so much depth, many layers, amazing shadows. But wait, listen to Kevin tell you about his work. 

Kevin

My name is Kevin Ewing. I've lived here in Rochester the last 25 years, 30 years, came here to teach elementary classroom, and lived in Winona prior to that, worked on a framing crew, and learned carpentry that way.

Graduated with an art degree, but couldn't find a job teaching art,  so, I developed a cabinet-making business and then when my kids got to be school age, I renewed my teaching degree and got a job here in Rochester.

Susan

Where did you grow up?

Kevin

Western Wisconsin, just across the river from Winona.
Whitehall has a little farming community, 99 percent Norwegian. I was one of the few that didn't have sun in my last name.

Susan

Are you Norwegian though? 

Kevin

No, I'm Irish. Today is great, I'm Irish. 

Susan

Oh, it's your day. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Yeah. You weren't wearing any green that I could see. Oh yeah, underneath your t shirt maybe is green. 

I was texting with my son just a few minutes ago, and he was asking about that. If you go back far enough,  our clan is Irish. And after the London fire, we were sold or captured into indentured slavery in England.

Then the family got out of there and went to Scotland and immigrated from Scotland to Maryland. 

Susan

Really? So it's Celtic in some place. So do you love Celtic music? 

Kevin

Yes, I do. I always have. I see lots of Celtic knots in your carving too. I love Celtic stuff.

Susan

Currently you're retired as a teacher and you do wood carving  And wood construction for custom jobs for people.

Kevin

Right. I have, the last five years of my retirement, done a lot of custom one of a kind woodworking for specific purposes. But I got a new knee this August, and that was my line in the sand from this point forward. I'm going to do the things I've been waiting to do for the last 50 years. I want to weld, I want to do some steam bending, and I want to just mostly carve.

It has always been a hobby of mine, the carving, and kind of a relax point after working in school and with kids all day, I'd carve a little bit at home. But the last five years I've been doing more and more of it, and more commission-based  pieces.

Susan

Tell me about your growing up. did you come from an artsy family?

Kevin

People ask me that often and all I can come up with is that my dad was a teacher and an administrator, which I swore I'd never be. But he always brought home art supplies. We always had a constant supply of paper and markers and pencils.

We didn't have a TV in my home growing up. So I think we just drew because that was our outlet. That's, I think, the roots of it. And then,  my run in college was to teach commercial art. And then as a carpenter,  I combined art and woodworking, and that's where the carving comes from, I think.

So the design and the envisioning it, and then actually doing it with the tools is a combination of all those factors.

Susan

 We're sitting here in your sweet studio, it's so organized, a whole wall full of tools, chisels, beautifully displayed rows and rows of chisels, and then all these vintage tools that were your wife's grandfather's tools.

Kevin

They're so beautiful. And I use them. I appreciate them and I like to have them in my space where I can see them, but there's probably four or five of them that I use fairly regular basis. So I would like to continue that and I'll hope that my kids will. 

Susan

Tell me what you look for in a tool, in a chisel or, what are the basic tools that you use for your art?

Kevin

Well, everything with woodwork has got to cut something. So if it's electrified, if it has a cord, it's something spinning. It's a router, table saw, bandsaw. But the hand tools are pretty much hand-powered. So you're pushing to make designs in wood. My primary interest in carving is relief carving. So I'm going down into the surface and excavating that away.

It's subtractive kind of art. But then with different profiles of gouges we make the shapes of what comes to the surface.

Susan

Shapes and textures? 

Kevin

Yep. 

Susan

What was your very first carving that you ever did that you loved?

Kevin

That angel. It was a tree topper way up there.

Susan

Oh, I see it. Yes. Oh, it's so cute.

Kevin

So, 1979 on our honeymoon, I bought a basic set of tools and we're up in Grand Marais and the intention was it was going to be a skiing honeymoon and there was no snow that year.

Susan

A carving honeymoon. 

Kevin

So, I carved our first Christmas tree topper out of what was balsa wood, which is a horrible wood to carve. I mean, it's soft, but it's very stringy, but  that was my first experience.

Susan

Do you put it on your tree?

Kevin

46 years, it's been on our tree.

Susan

It reminds me a little bit of some Mexican or maybe Guatemalan wood-carved angels. A little more refined, 

Kevin

It's got a few dings from falling off occasionally, but I hollowed out the skirt so that the top light would go through there and uplight her chin. I probably bit off more than I could chew, but it worked. 

Susan

That's a pretty impressive first project, and you're still using it 46 years later.
All those little dings are just this history that comes along with it. 

Kevin

Yeah, it's just part of, the tip of the wing on one side has popped off. I think about replacing it or fixing it, and I think, no, that's just part of the heritage of it. 

Susan

What's the most difficult thing that you've ever carved?

Kevin

It's the species of wood that make it hard. Any wood can be carved, but cherry and oak walnut isn't so bad, but cherry and oak are very difficult to carve.  It means that I'm honing, I'm putting new edges on my tools quite frequently with the harder woods. The subject matter is Not the issue.

One lady brought me a grocery bag full of leaves,  all the leaves from the trees in her backyard, and she wanted me to carve a front for her range hood in her new kitchen. So I just actually traced the leaves, and then relieved the background and modeled the leaves in cherry. So it looks nice, but it was a bit of a battle to get the same effect that I can easily get with basswood.

My preferred woods are basswood or butternut. Because they are consistent and soft and they hold an edge when you carve into it. Other woods like pine can be real stringy and it's hard to get a crisp edge with the gouge.

So as people learn to carve, I always start them with basswood. Because of its softness and forgiveness,  they can actually make a nice cut that they can see and enjoy. But the harder woods make it more challenging.

Susan

When you were carving those leaves did you undercut them all so they're  three-dimensional, layered on top of each other?

Kevin

Right, and that,  brings me a lot of joy, to raise the object, the leaf or the tree, and then reduce the background so I can go behind the tree trunk, or leaves interact with each other, overlap each other. Cause that throws shadows, and the beauty of carving,  I think our eyes are attracted to contrast.

 To go down into a chunk of wood. an undercut or go under and relieve the background makes shadows and that's what I think  makes carvings appealing. More three dimensional even though they're still rather flat.  Most of my wood is just an inch thick sometimes two inches thick and then I can go even deeper but if you can create a shadow then  You're not sure how thick the wood is, because the lighting in the room throws shadows that make it interesting.

If it's a commission piece, I ask where is it going to hang, what kind of light is it going to be?  Is it downward light, is it from the side? Because that would have some impact on how I might choose to carve it.

But mostly I carve. Just because it appeals to me, and if someone likes it, they're good.

Susan

If not, it's yours.

Kevin

Well, they end up here in the shop on the floor, waiting for a home or a place.

Susan

It looks like you have a lot of things at varying stages of completion. Is that how you work, having a lot of things going on all at the same time?

Kevin

No, it's a curse, that I get going on something, and then I see something else, and so I'll start that. Many pieces that are 90 percent done, which I think is pretty common to most .

Susan

I wouldn't know about that.

Kevin

Well, it's my problem. My wife will say I'm a 95% er, not just in my projects, but projects in the house. If it's far enough along that we can use it, then I get on to the next thing.

Susan

I might be a 65%-er. 

Kevin

But yeah, I made a statement on Facebook in January, it said, I'm going to finish pieces before I start new ones.

Susan

That's your New Year's resolution this year? 

Kevin

Yeah, that's my
resolution. I've already failed it.
But I have pieces that, when I say, well, what shall I do today? I've got pieces in progress that I can tackle.

Susan

Whatever strikes your fancy that day. 

Kevin

I collect photos. I take pictures of things I see as a resource for, down the road I want to carve that swan that's on the side of the Mayo building.
Actually, you have a rabbit, don't you, from the Mayo building?

 Susan

I do, that you carved. Yes, .

Kevin

When I teach a class like yesterday, there are ten, twelve students there, I said, now you're going to start seeing carvings around town, on the side of a gas station that has some glazed terracotta pieces that you could carve.

I think that our eyes get open to seeing art once we start doing it, or attempting and trying it.

Susan

I think that's one of the magical things about creating, is you notice what others have created.

Kevin

Right. And so, some of it's, my inspiration comes from trees and leaves, and I love camping and being outside in the summers and falls.
But some of it is from other artists. I see what they're doing and I think I could try that, or I , might be able to do that. 

Susan

Right behind me you have this piece that's maybe completed, or nearly completed, the Hokusai  Tsunami Wave. Yeah.

Kevin

It's a famous woodblock print from 1830. A Japanese artist did it.
And he did over 80 variations of it. But this is the one that's the most recognizable. You'd see in galleries. I was at Michael's the other day. And I looked up and there's a poster of it. I said, Hey, I'm working on that right now.

Susan

Okay, this looks like it's about maybe two feet by three or so. 

Kevin

Yeah, it's 22 by 34 which is the poster size that you would buy at a poster shop.
But it's two inches thick. So I have lots of room for depth and different levels of carving in it.  It was. 90 percent done and someone saw it. I posted it on Instagram. Someone wanted to buy it. So, it's going out the door this week.

Susan

It's so amazing you have, well it the wave has foamy droplets on the curl of the wave - you were able to capture that in wood.

Kevin

I think so. I hope so. I'm pretty happy with it and that's not Real common, I think, for artists to be happy with something they've done,  I mean, there's pieces that, parts of it I'd like to, I'll do differently if I'd make another one. But that's part of the process of creating.

Susan

How long have you been working on that piece?

Kevin

That piece is about 70 hours. So far. Well, that's pretty much done. It's ready for them to pick up.

Susan

And then part of it's Stained or painted a little bit?

Kevin

 I use watercolor to fade in color. And it will probably fade a little bit over time. But Then I get some more motion in the work. From going intense color to light color.

It accentuates the curve of the wave. Many carvers use oil or acrylic. But, I've always appreciated watercolor. And I do watercolor paintings as another interest of mine, but for these pieces, it's watercolor.

Susan

Seems only appropriate for a water image. 

Kevin

Yeah, a water wave, yeah, it should be, yeah. 

Susan

What are the kinds of things that you're drawn to, besides leaves?
You have such a range, like Celtic knots, to fruit and vintage kind of images, architectural construction...

Kevin

Yeah, I don't know if I have found my niche yet. I'm all about trying different things. These are experiments in combining stained glass and carving. So the wood that's left is really the keem, what would be lead.
And I'm going to backfill all those spaces with glass.

Susan

Is that an original idea? I've never seen that before. 

Kevin

I've never seen it, and so I think it's original, but there's perhaps people out there that have done it. I've never seen it, so it's unique to me, I guess. When people ask me what kind of carving do I do, I describe it as architectural.

There's a group of carvers in town, the Carvers Club, they have a show next weekend, in fact. But they're mostly caricature carving, so it's figures three dimensional Santas and Cowboys, and it's lovely, but it just doesn't appeal to me as much as what would be over a fireplace or above a doorway mantles, brackets, corbels, that kind of thing.

And just wall art, like that, wave piece is. recently I've gotten kind of into the Scandinavian Norwegian carving and I've done three or four pieces that are replicas of an actual piece in Norway.  This one is from 1040, just as the Norwegians are moving from a pagan faith system to Christianity.

Before there was written language, the people coming into their church at that time knew the story of good over evil. The deer here - looks like a deer, it's a lion- but that's the spirit of Norway. And it's being attacked by two snakes, which would be the evil attacking the good, but the tails of the snakes are turning into flowers.

And so the myth, or the understanding of the people of that time is that the good Norwegian spirit would overtake the evil.

Susan

It's such a beautiful piece and it has a little bit of a Celtic knot feel to it.

 Kevin

Yeah, the flow of the lines is very Celtic.

Susan

Which and with the snakes, I'm thinking about St.
Patrick's Day, but I wonder if there's a crossover there, a connection somehow.

Kevin

I guess I don't know enough about the history of it. I will learn about it. It has a lot of interest to me to see that combination of art and faith or an understanding of how we are here and what is good and evil. I imagine every ethnic group, every culture has something like thatdone in stone, or in wood, or in paintings, or the iconic work of the Greek Orthodox. Incredible art, but it has a purpose and a function to teach people about their beliefs.

Susan

Right, and recording the times for the future. That one is a, a deep, kind of almost ebony color,  did you paint that one, or is it the kind of wood?

Kevin

I painted it, yeah. And so, paint has come into my, vocabulary recently. this particular piece that it's modeled after the King of Norway, in like 1200, decreed that all of the iconic carving. on churches should be tarred with pine pitch and it would turn dark brown and that was to preserve them which makes great sense of exposure because they're on the outside of these stave churches but the pine pitch would develop a mold on it that had slightly a yellow cast to it so the yellow that i've over sprayed Is to replicate that mold on top of the pine pitch.

Susan

Oh,  now that you say that I can see almost a velvety hint of the yellow  over the dark. It does look very old. You did a good job of capturing the age.

Kevin

So the black and the brown are to replicate the pine pitch, or age pitch. And that little dusting of yellow on top is the mold. As I research and read about what I'm trying to carve, I said, well, I gotta see if I can replicate that.

Susan

So neat. So you have really a love of history as much as you do of art.

Kevin

Yeah. Because, historical pieces, I mean, we have modern art and abstract art and there's things that represent us today that future generations look back on and understand this day, perhaps. But, I have a real interest in stuff that was two, three hundred years, a thousand years ago.

So, that's where that came from. This piece I took with me up to Northhouse in Grand Marais, and studied with a Norwegian carver, and he was not there to teach us, but to coach us. And he said, bring pieces that are partially done. So I took this, and I wanted him to tell me what the background should be like.

Should it be smooth, or should it show the gouge marks? And he wouldn't tell me. He said,  it's personal,  you do it whatever you wish. So I was hoping for more direct. Yes or no or right or wrong. You're just going to have to go to Norway and look at it in person. I hope so.

Susan

Oh well. Someday. It almost, because of the color and the smoothness, it almost has a metallic sort of feel to it too.

Yeah depending on the light. Sometimes the facets or the gouge marks reflect light and adds more character to the carving. So I compromise on this. There are tool marks in the background but I try to smooth it out. Not perfectly flat, but flatter than I had it when I went up to the class.

Susan

Do you have  a signature that you carve in somehow that identifies it as your work?

Kevin

I haven't yet. I guess I need to. I'm signing pieces on the back, but when I was in high school I developed my logo with my two initials, the K and the E, so maybe I should incise those into these pieces, but I don't want to distract from from the piece either, but.

Susan

As a painter, I always have that dilemma, too.I don't really want my name on the piece, so now I often write it on the side of the canvas, but.

Yeah, I see, I see artists doing that.

Susan

Or just in a very subtle change of color, so it's  just a hint of my name there.

Kevin

I've seen painted pieces with a large scrawl of signature and Maybe you have to be really famous to do that, but it detracts from the artwork itself, I think.

Susan

Well, or just really confident.

Kevin

Yeah, cocky or something. Arrogant.

Susan

Or it's part of the art, maybe, if you have this piece, maybe that signature becomes part of the work. 

Kevin

So, my friends and my family say, you gotta sign it, you gotta sign it. On the back.

Susan

So tell me about your family. Are they artists as well? Did you raise your children as artists?

Kevin

Well, I did the same as what my father did. I made sure there were lots of supplies. We had a TV, but we also had lots of art.  My two oldest girls have artsy expressions that they do. Different ways. But my son is making a living as an artist.  he's painting large panels, he's got galleries in, uh, Canada. Finland. He's got work in Egypt and Mexico.

Susan

Wow, how old is he? 

Let'sl see. He is, uh, 32.

Susan

Wow, that is amazing. It is. Good for him.

Kevin

I'm jealous of him. But I'm actually happy for him, too.
He works with, . A gallery owner in New York, and that guy is pretty much buying anything that he makes, and in the last year or two he started carving stone.

His paintings that were Picasso esque, now he's doing that in stone. So, , his work is evolving, . He's still an artist. It's Feast to Famine, but  he's selling pieces that are quite large.

Susan

He's in feast mode right now. That's pretty good. Yeah,

Kevin

He just got a studio with an apartment in it where he can live and work. So I'm excited for him.

Susan

You live along the river in, more of the center of the city, not the center, but in the city now, but you used to live on a little farm.

Kevin

Yeah.

Susan

Did you grow up on a farm too?

Kevin

Kinda.

Susan

So, do you find a connection between your teaching and The farm and your art.  Is there a line that goes through all of it?

Kevin

Yeah, I, I adopted a farm family from my church.  In fifth grade, I started riding my bike out to this farm Doing hay, doing chores, and pretty soon I had my bedroom out there And I was out there, if I wasn't in school, I was on the farm.

So I learned a lot and how to make and build because On the farm, in the 60s, 70s, you didn't throw anything away, you fixed it. And, , when I snapped the chain on the manure spreader, I had to fix it myself. And that was a learning experience, it was embarrassing, but they said you gotta fix it.  So, I think part of that is,  repair and hand tools and making and repairing and fixing and making something that works and serves the need is part of my heritage, my growing up.

Also, we're big into outdoors and skiing and  snowmobiling and water sports. So, I gotta also establish a love for outdoors and camping, and camping is still a big passion of ours.

Susan

And you did  a public art piece at one of the parks in Rochester with trees.

Kevin

Cascade Park. The gentleman in charge of the park system here, Was in Europe and saw trees buried upside down in one of the parks there. And so they brought that concept back here to Rochester and  Cascade Park, one of the newest city parks that they've established and developed, has five trees that are trunks down and roots up.

Susan

Are they alive?

Kevin

No, they're dead trees.

Susan

Sculptures of former trees. 

Kevin

But there's a senior Home right adjacent to it and so I had lots of supervision as I carved.  The ladies in their 80s and 90s with their walkers would come out and sit and watch and encourage me. And the men would come by and say, that's never going to grow.
I said, I know. It's going to split and die and fall apart and I'll do it again in 20 years.

Susan

So what is the carving with those trees?

Kevin

They're faces.  And  Having been an elementary teacher and principal, I didn't want it to be the gothic spirit, scary.

Susan

Green men?

Kevin

Green men kind of thing, spirit men. So, they are, they're still spirit people, but they're not terrifying.

Sometimes I go out there and sit just to watch the kids interact with it. They think it's pretty fun and they like to see it and touch it.  It's at a level where kids could engage with it. Visually and physically. But, , not scary.  They're mostly gender neutral, but there's one that's definitely a woman.
And then maybe one that looks more man like. It was a new experience because I got to use a chainsaw and do the deep cut with a chainsaw and then grinders and then finish with my gouges that I use  in the shop.

Susan

Did you have a special chainsaw or is it? The same kind you would cut your trees down on your farm.

Kevin

Well, I purchased a cordless chainsaw. A Stihl. I have a Stihl farm boss for dropping trees. But this one has a very narrow tip on it. It's called a dime tip or a nickel tip. So I could get,  more detail cut out with it. It was purchased for that project and I'll use it. I'm doing two more this summer at the newest park, which is, , across from, , Menards North and that clump of trees there.

So that park is going to be trails and The seating is all limestone blocks. There's no concrete, there's no plastic. It's a very natural, organic kind of park.  So the pieces I'm going to be carving are a pileated woodpecker and some owls. And they're going to be higher, and more like a scavenger hunt.

See if you can find the owls, , as they walk through the trails. Delightful. So that will be the spring summer project.

Susan

Kind of interactive with the kids.

Kevin

Yeah.

Susan

What do you have next coming up in your life? Whether it's wood carving or some other creative aspect.

Kevin

Well I'm teaching quite a bit actually, I'm teaching at least once a month for the spring at the Marine Museum in Winona, ,  Red Wing Arts, and , in the Winona Arts Center, teaching classes there, and I'm teaching once a month in my shop. for groups of carvers.
So that's new.

Susan

I'd still love you to come and teach at Squash Blossom someday. 

Kevin

Yeah, we'll just set it up and we'll do it. I have a set of tools for every student and a piece of wood and a carving hook like this so they can take it and do it at home if they have their own tools or they can buy tools.
But  It's an introductory lesson, and so far every student has said, man, I love this and time goes so fast and I wanna do it more and come back next month. So,

Susan

So they do come back and complete their project sometimes?
Is that here? 

Kevin

I use my cabinet shop.

Susan

Okay, because it's larger. This is pretty intimate if you have six people. 

Kevin

I can do two students, or three maybe. I've had a family of five kids that were in here. That's pretty snug. But,in that space I can do twelve. pretty easily. So, but at your place, we could do  a lot in the greenhouse or even in the mead room.

Susan

A little bit of sipping of mead and carving might be a dangerous combination.

Kevin

In moderation, it's all good. That's what the Marine Museum is. You know, there's drinks that come with that.

Susan

Really? Oh, I like that idea. 

Kevin

They're connected with A brewery in La Crosse that does, , prairie vodka stuff, specialty drinks.So I think that's, will be the thing in June.
Very cool.  But mead would be great.

Susan

Yes. I think it kind of goes with, like, the Norwegian carving or Celtic carving to have a glass of mead. ,

Kevin

I have a Norwegian ale bowl. which is  about 18 inches across. In the early days, the women of the family would brew the beer, and then at weddings and funerals or any kind of special event, they would have  a big urn of ale, and it was just passed around in the community.

Susan

You would drink out of the bowl.

Kevin

Yeah, you sip up and pass it around. So, I've made a large one and a small one for those who don't want germs from other people.

Susan

That was in the day before there were germs. Probably  the ale would kill off a lot of those germs.

Kevin

Yeah, I think so.  Their systems were tough , but the modern day Norwegian carvers that are carving ale bowls, it's more about the decoration and the complexity of the carving than the
exterior of the bowl.

Susan

Are they carved in that chip-carving style or more relief carving like you do?

Kevin

It's both. very often they're birds or ducks that are the bowl outsides. But there's very often knotting, the interwoven Celtic kindness knots on the sides. But chip carving would be doing borders, which is also a Scandinavian type of carving.

Susan

A few years ago, I took a wood carving class at the UU church with you. Oh, yeah. A couple years ago. And, you're right, it did open my eyes to wood carving, and I really appreciate it and have collected a lot of pieces for my house.
And there's a couple I would love to show you someday that are interesting.

Kevin

Yeah, we'll make it happen. 

Susan

I see this sign that was on your wall. Maybe you should read it.

Kevin

I don't recall where I got it from, but it was a carving book. So I'm not sure who "he" is,  "but he also warned me wood carving is a pleasurable disease and there is no cure except to carve more.'
As you see I have the disease.

Susan

And it's chronic. And it's contagious?

Kevin

Yeah, yeah.

Susan

So if somebody wants to be exposed to this disease and wants to take a class with you, how do they find out about the classes at your studio?

Kevin

Through my Instagram.  My Instagram account is just Kevin K Ewing, , and I'll post on there, , the next upcoming class or the next couple down the road.

Susan

Okay. I'll put a link on the interview as well.

Kevin

Yeah. The next one is, april. April 19th. Saturday afternoon.  Just text me and we'll keep it to about 12 people and probably go into the next month for another one. It's just this developing organic thing that's happening,
I'm happy about it.

Susan

Well, thank you so much. What WOOD I do without you?
I can't wait to take another class with you someday.

Kevin

Well, let's host it out at your place.

Susan

I would love that. Thanks again.

Yeah, thank you.

Susan

Thank you for listening to this episode of A Brush With Life. You can find photos of today's guests, their work, links to their social media and upcoming events on our website, www. abrushwithlife. org. If you enjoyed today's show, please subscribe from our website. You can also leave me a message. I would love to hear from you.

Thank you to Squash Blossom Farm for ongoing support, and especially to Roger Nelson for creating our theme music. A Brush With Life is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.