CARVING HER NICHE

Wildlife woodcarver Desiree Hajny grew up in the Rocky Mountains during the ‘60s.

“My parents wore waffle-stompers,” says Hajny (pronounced HAY-nee). Born in Iowa in 1957, the family moved to Colorado when she was 3 years old.

“My folks always encouraged us to experiment with art,” says the internationally known woodcarver. “They always had paints or a pad of paper around for us to draw on.”

Hajny is in Spokane as the featured artist for this weekend’s “Artistry in Wood Show” at Spokane Community College.

“Dad got into building houses, so there was always wood around,” she recalls. “Mother was extremely creative and used to draw a lot.”

Although always artistic, it wasn’t until Hajny was in her mid-20s that she discovered a passion for woodcarving.

An art major in college during the mid-1970s, Hajny dreamed of becoming the first female syndicated editorial cartoonist.

“I loved drawing caricatures,” she says, “but I was too slow with the ideas.”

By the end of the ‘70s, Hajny and her husband, Bernie, finished college and moved to a small farming community in north-central Nebraska to teach high school.

“This was cowboy country and these were ranch kids who didn’t have a high regard for art,” she says. “They were more familiar with pocketknives than pastels, so I decided to do a unit on woodcarving hoping to get them interested in sculpture.”

By the end of the school year, the students discovered art could be fun and Hajny “got hooked” on woodcarving.

“A couple of years later Desi left teaching to be a stay-at-home mom when our son, Jeff, was born,” says Bernie Hajny, “and she began using her artistic skills to supplement the whopping salary I was receiving teaching.”

Their goal was for her to bring in $100 a month. She designed T-shirts and greeting cards, and even coached the middle school volleyball team.

It was after a 1985 woodcarving show in Omaha, “where we were thrilled to make a massive $107,” recalls Bernie Hajny, “that things began to slowly come together. We heard of other shows, and Desi started winning awards.”

Ten years later Bernie Hajny left teaching to work full time with the art business.

“We are truly partners,” says Desiree Hajny. “I do what I do best and he does all the rest.”

What she does best is carve three-dimensional realistic mammals in a distinctive contemporary style.

As Hajny became known throughout the United States, she evolved into teaching seminars, competing in and judging shows, giving demonstrations and writing how-to books. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, winning 17 best-of-show honors, more than 75 first places and six People’s Choice awards.

Regarded as one of America’s finest animal carvers, she was named “Woodcarver of the Year” in 2003 by Woodcarving Illustrated Magazine. Last month she represented the United States in the International Woodcarvers Convention in Kitchener, Ontario.

Original carvings now sell for $300 to more than $1,000. Since 2000, dozens of her original woodcarvings have been cast in a painted, alabaster/resin material and distributed across the country through Mill Creek Studios in California.

The Hajnys have come a long way in 20 years.

“We’ve had a good time,” says Bernie Hajny. “In the beginning we were both too stupid to know we might not succeed. We just kept moving forward and we’ve met a host of wonderful people along the way.”