"I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy." - Kahlil Gibran
My father was a very generous man. I can't even tell you the countless items he made me. He was a carpenter, a painter, a teacher, a sculptor, a builder, a magician and a mentor. He passed away in August of this year. I would like to use this post to share his imagination with you. My father approached his craft much the same as I do. He worked a job during the day and then came home at night and on weekends and worked in his workshop. Even today the smell of sawdust reminds me of watching him work. I've never had the desire to work much in wood, but his influence in my work is very strong.
These are some photos from his first workshop that was located in the basement before he built a much larger workshop in the backyard. He built all of his shelves and labeled each one with drawings of what was inside and he also painted silhouettes on the wall where each tool hung. He did the same in our garage. He knew when a tool was being borrowed or used because it was missing from the wall.
My father started to lose his hearing very early on in my life. When I moved to Nashville it was difficult to communicate with him because he couldn't hear me over the phone and at that point email had not yet become integrated into all of our lives. My solution was to start writing letters back and forth. I would write a letter and send sketches and draw on photos and he would write letters back doing the same. I don't have many of those letters anymore (yes, I'm kicking myself) but I do have some absurd birthday cards he had sent me.
Before he died, he gave me a stack of cards on which he had designed all sorts of projects. Some are very basic, some beautiful. I love the morel mushroom vase!
When I was a child he made this Grandfather clock in which all the parts were made of wood. I remember so many people coming over to just to see it. It actually worked too!
He gave me these flowers and cattails before he died. That man LOVED cattails. There were so many things he designed with cattails in them.
I miss him very much.
