If you give Bill Boone a piece of wood, he can turn it into a treasure. Mr Boone is not King Midas, this treasure is not gold. Within each piece of art that he has created lies a story. Each piece of wood, although similar in appearance, are all unique after his hands have had time to whittle away the excess. It is an analogy for life, the more you dig , the more you carve, the more changes that you make, overtime an image of who we are will begin to appear. Over time you can see that each scrape of the blade, small yet precise, makes a permanent change. Each stroke helps to create something completely original, something worth having, each help create a treasure that is our lives.
“Yucca” Bill Boone is President of the Golden Spread Woodcarvers. The group was founded in 1999, it boasts 48 members who all share a passion for wood work. The group meets every 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month to discuss projects and “have an awful lot of fun”according to Bill. Although time consuming(each piece can take around 20 hours to complete) they find joy in the process. “if we had to charge by the hour, nobody could ever afford the price, we do it because we love it” said Yucca Bill when he was asked what he considered a fair price on his items.
The Golden Spread Woodcarvers are hosting Artistry in Wood November 21-22 2010. Hours are from 10AM-6PM on Saturday and 10AM-5PM on Sunday. Admission is free. This is a great chance for those in the community interested in the art of woodcarving to meet the experts. You can also browse and buy hand carved gifts for the upcoming holidays. While attending the show you also get a chance to sit and talk with the carvers, and if you are not careful, you might learn something.
We are all here to help each other out, to teach one another, and to share our passions with the world. We all have gifts granted to us, rather it be a knack for woodcarving, or something completely different, it is our duty as people to share these gifts and pass down the tools to the next generation. There is nothing in the world more important than knowledge and the strong desire to share what you know with others. This is what I learned while talking with Yucca Bill, although we grew up in completely different generations, the human condition never changes. We will all fail at something at some point in our life. Its just a matter of getting back up time and time again that determines the outcome. With each decision we make, we carve out another slice of our lives story. Each road traveled and every experience that we have all chip away the incomplete and unnecessary parts, until we are left with our legacy, our own individual carving.
Artistry in Wood will be hosted at the Amarillo Civic Center in the Regency Room.
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