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People On The Move - Carl Johnson
10/27/2009 - By Tobi D. Tesoriero
WOODCARVER, ARTIST, MUSICIAN
Carl E. Johnson is one of those amazing people that can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. He takes chunks of wood and turns them into figurines or vessels or display shelves. His gnomes emanate impish energy and his statues capture the charm and personalities of his subjects. Sometimes he transforms the wood into graceful scrolls and decorative urns. Still other times he uses the wood in marquetry projects, creating amazing works of art.
His artistic pursuits do not stop there. Carl also works in stained glass. He creates intricate designs for lamps, windows, and furniture insets. His artistic eye blends the colors with thousands of pieces to make aesthetically beautiful items.
When not involved in physical art, Carl is making music; he plays both the trumpet and piano. He is a member of the Colts Neck Community Band, the Colts Neck Swing Band, the Atlantic Wind Ensemble, and the Ocean Grove Summer Band…among others! Carl also shared that as a young boy he played his coronet on The Fred Allen Show (a 30’s and 40’s radio show).
Prior to his retirement Carl was an engineer who worked on the space program. He had the opportunity to first work on projects that sent unmanned space crafts into space, and then worked on the project that saw the United States send a man to the moon. Originally from Yonkers, New York, Carl and his wife Milly have been married for 50 years and have 10 grandchildren. They previously lived in the Washington DC/Arlington, Virginia area and in Pasadena, California, and moved to Colts Neck in 1972 when his job with Bell Labs transferred him to Holmdel.
When asked how he got involved in his artistic pursuits Carl said that his love of creating came [to him] as a young boy. His dad was a carpenter, and when Carl was young he would help his dad build homes. Carl also built dollhouse furniture. He became further involved in woodcarving when he met wood carvers at his SON Noreg Lodge 3-466. “I had carved a little before, but these men showed me the tools I needed and how to buy them. They also gave me the initial direction I needed to learn how to carve in the Scandinavian style,” he said.
Deciding to further hone his talents, Carl took classes from master carvers. “While woodcarving at my SON lodge, I learned of two famous woodcarvers who could teach me the skills I needed to know about Scandinavian figure carving and relief carving. I understood that these men had the reputations of being teachers of teachers, so I took a week’s class with Harley Refsal at Fletcher Farms, Vermont, to learn flat plane figure carving, and then two weekend sessions with Hans Sandom in Yorktown Heights, New York, to learn acanthus carving. The skills that I learned from these men have greatly influenced my work, but what has influenced my art most is the doing of it. Every time I complete a work I get better at carving.”
As with any pursuit, the right tools bring the craftsman or artist to their next level. Each type of carving that Carl does requires different tools. He has one set of tools dedicated for carving figurines and another for his scroll acanthus work. He starts most pieces using a band saw, then refines the projects with his hand tools.
Carl certainly has honed his craft. After competing for only 3 years he was awarded the Gold Medal for excellence in woodcarving from the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in 2005 for his piece, “Theft of the Scream.” The piece depicts mischievous trolls stealing the famous Edvard Munch painting “The Scream” from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. Carl’s idea was to show the trolls stealing it while Norway, symbolized by the figure of the man, reacts.
Carl now teaches woodcarving at the Sons of Norway Lodge (Noreg) on Sundays in Marlboro, where he is the Cultural Director.
*To view some of Carl’s work you can visit his website online at: www.flickr.com/photos/carl_e_johnson_woodcarving.
STATS
FAVORITE RESTAURANT
Molly Pitcher Inn, Red Bank
FAVORITE MUSIC
all kinds of music
FAVORITE MOVIE
Godfather
PET PEEVE
politics
THREE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH
my wife Milly, Phil Smith (trumpet player with the New York Philharmonic), and Billy Graham
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