Retiree Stays Keen On Woodcarving

Vince White didn’t bring anything to last Saturday’s meeting of the Spokane Carvers Association.

No tools, no wood. No new carving project.

Just himself in his canary yellow association vest.

“I’m just yacking with people today,” he said.

It was the first time he’d been to a carving meeting since February, and White was still getting back into the swing of things.

He eyed some of the other carvers’ work: a collection of tiny wooden cowboy boots; some as-yet-undetermined chunks currently under the knife.

“I’ll start getting back into it,” he said. “I kind of lost interest in a lot of stuff for a while.”

White’s wife, Betty Lee, died in January after 49 years of marriage. The two met in San Diego, where White was running a Catholic youth program.

“She told me I didn’t have a chance,” he said, smiling. “I guess I did.”

The couple lived in Albuquerque, N.M., where White worked as a design engineer for the Atomic Energy Commission until 19 years ago, when they moved to Spokane to be closer to family. White still lives next door to his daughter and has coffee with her every morning.

It’s taken awhile, he said, to pick up his woodwork again. But he hasn’t lost his passion for carving.

“I get engrossed in carving,” he said. “It’s so I don’t even know what’s going on around me.”

White has been carving for only 10 years, since his wife suggested he join a club, but his work is that of a natural, says local artist Shani Marchant.

Marchant, who has a master’s degree in fine art and was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, has been White’s neighbor for 10 years. She calls his work “amazing.”

“He’s definitely what I would call a folk artist,” she said. “He carves about outdoor experiences as well as animals.

“And he also has his spiritual side, which seems to be madonnas.” This variety is something that definitely marks White’s work.

“I can never do two of the same thing,” he said.

A disheveled, bemused man holding a shotgun in one hand and a skunk in the other sits on a shelf next to dolphins and Santa Claus in White’s basement. A half-finished Nativity scene is scattered on his work table next to a Native American relief.

They are cut in everything from basic yellow base wood to smooth, expensive black willow and butternut, depending on the grain he needs.

His favorite piece is two fighting stallions he fashioned from walnut. The stallions stand on their hind legs, front legs entangled.

The piece is so entwined that White colored the front legs red and blue to keep them straight while carving. It took him a year and a half to complete.

It’s the involved projects like this he relishes. He will display a 15-inch platter at the annual Artistry in Wood competition in October.

The platter has 984 diamond-shaped cuts - none bigger than a thumbnail - fanned into the shape of a sunflower. It took White 25 hours to complete the plate, which would sell for $400.

He gave it to his daughter.

White continues to carve even after nine surgeries on his hands for carpal-tunnel syndrome and despite one other factor.

“I shake like the dickens,” he said.

Does it affect his work?

“It has to,” he said. “I’ve never carved without shaking.”

It was his need for surgery, in fact, that sold his first piece.

His surgeon’s wife caught sight of a Nativity scene White had very nearly completed. She started packing it up - Wise Men and all.

“I had it almost finished, and my doctor’s wife grabbed it up,” he said. The set sold for $1,500.

Mostly, though, White carves just for the love of it.

“I’ve sold very few pieces,” he said. “Everything I carved, my wife said, ‘That’s mine. You can’t sell that.”’

He also likes to display his work at carving shows around the state. He has “boxes” of ribbons, he said, but one in particular - a multicolored People’s Choice ribbon from a 1994 Spokane show - is his favorite.

As long as the people like his work, he says, he’s satisfied.

“Tongue in cheek,” he whispered conspiratorially, “I’m hoping to get it again this year with the plate. Women like it better than the horses, and they really carry the vote at the show.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CARVING SHOW, SALE Artistry in Wood ‘97, a carving show and sale featuring more than 250 entries from artists around the nation, will take place Oct. 4 and 5 at Spokane Community College’s Lair Student Union. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 4 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 5. Admission is $3. The event is sponsored by the Spokane Carvers Association and the Inland Empire Carvers, 891-6931.