Hand-crafted carvings

In a garage-turned-art shop on a plot of forested mountainside west of Rathdrum, Bruce Wright nimbly worked his hands over a wooden disc almost as wide as a dinner table.

Wright’s 66-year-old frame, dressed in blue slacks and suspenders that hugged a white T-shirt that wasn’t quite as light as his scruffy beard, hunched over the thick slab of red alder as classical music drifted out of the building’s large sliding doors.

As he gripped a chisel and carefully carved a letter out of the perimeter of the piece, a hand-carved presidential seal 34 inches across and weighing 20 pounds that features the inlaid bald eagle popping out like a miniature 3-D statue, the retired steel welder was a study in dexterity and very deliberate craftsmanship.

“I can’t really draw that well,” Wright, a Colville native, confessed as he took a break from carving in the garage to show some examples of the various pieces he’s made through the years, many of which adorn the inside of the Rathdrum area home he shares with his wife, Paula.

“But I’ve always liked to carve. I got into it about 20 years ago, and after I retired, I started doing it again.”About the work-in-progress, he added “We voted for President Obama, so I thought I’d do something to commemorate his election. I’m proud of America, and I think we’re proud because that means anybody can be elected.”

Already 60 hours into the seal, and another 40 at least to go before it’s finished, Wright’s wooden works often take weeks to complete since he does everything without the aid of a Dremel power tool. Despite the countless hours he puts into each hand-carved sculpture, which start as designs on carbon paper before being transferred to timber, he often gives them away to friends and family, or donates them to businesses in the community. In fact, Wright, a Vietnam veteran who served two tours of duty in his 11 years with the Marines, hand-carved seven service emblems, including one for each branch of the military – Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard – and gave them to the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he has been a patient since 1973.

Kathy Kovalesky, acting chief of voluntary service at the medical center, said, “We’ve been very impressed with his work, and he’s donated everything he’s made to us. It’s just gorgeous, and it’s really a talent.”

To memorialize the 29th National Veterans Wheelchair Games held recently in Spokane, which Kovalesky said was a once-in-a-lifetime event since each VA center in the country can only host the annual games one time, she asked Wright if he’d be interested in creating a plaque that would remain in the medical center’s entryway, where it will join the rest of his carvings as they welcome patients and visitors to the center. “That way everyone can enjoy them because they are so beautiful,” she said.

“We were just amazed at the beauty of his work and when we asked Bruce to make one for the Veterans Wheelchair Games, he jumped at the chance.”

For Wright, he said it was an honor to make the wheelchair-emblazoned plaque, especially because he credits the center’s care, along with the support from his wife of 40 years, in helping him overcome stomach cancer in the 1980s. “I thought it was a privilege to do that. It honors the veterans’ past. We want them to know – the older Vietnam and Korea vets – what they have gone through and what they are going to go through, and that we respect them and want to help them.”

Wright said he doesn’t mind carving for free, particularly if it’s to honor war veterans or some other worthy cause. It’s all about the joy he finds in transforming a piece of wood into a work of art. In the two decades he’s been carving, he’s made everything from Celtic braids, which frame the front door of his house, to grape vines to people to moose, deer, and big horn sheep. However, he added, not everything turns out as planned. “I messed up a lot at first. I think it’s getting the depth right that took the longest to learn,” Wright explained. “What I like about it is trying to make a piece of wood look more than it actually is. And it’s relaxing. Sometimes I can spend four to five hours carving and not realize how much time has gone by.”

His wife continued, “Sometimes I’ll find him in the shop at 2 a.m. and have to tell him it’s time for bed. He gets so much into it that there’s a sign up that says ‘Please knock,’ because if you don’t, you’ll probably startle him.”

As for the presidential seal that Wright’s working on, he said he and Paula are both proud supporters of President Obama, and they wanted to symbolize that somehow. In the next few weeks, they’ll try and figure out how to ship the engraved gift to the White House, which they estimate will cost a few hundred dollars. “It’s a challenge doing that emblem, so I thought I’d make it and send it to President Obama. And if it’s not something they want, then at least it will make good kindling,” he joked.