Woodcarving Caricatures with Linda Cairns
The charming sound of blades scraping, carving, chipping and gouging away at wood fills the room at the Monona Senior Center where once a week ACE instructor Linda Cairns teaches a woodcarving class.
“They told me this was real carving,” laughed one student who drives from Middleton to attend the class. The newest member of Cairns’ ACE class is a former power carver. Several students concur that Cairns doesn’t care for them, preferring hands-on woodworking with traditional tools.
The students must provide their own gouges, which look similar to a screwdriver with a short blade. Many have toolboxes, bags or buckets full of tools and materials. “Linda tells us what we should get,” said another student, who also lives in Middleton. “As we go on, we collect more and more.”
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The summertime group of six women and two men is mostly silent in concentration, with small conversation popping up here and there. Cairns spends time with each student, moving around the table and helping each student with difficult details and giving helpful advice.
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“They’re always so amazed when I know what I’m doing,” Cairns said over the laughter of the women she was sitting between. Her expertise ranges from knowledge of wood – “Usually when basswood is white like this, it’s a bit harder,” she told one woman who was having trouble carving – to tricks for making statues come alive. A nick in the shoe, she suggested to a gentleman duplicating an 8-inch pilgrim, would make it look more realistic.
Cairns personal interest in woodcarving began when health problems forced her to leave her job as an LPN. To keep busy, she took a class in woodcarving. “I didn’t like carving birds,” she said. “I had collected Santa Clauses since I was in high school. I carved one bird and then started doing Santa Clauses.” Birds, she said, are a woodcarving class favorite because of their diversity.
Her instructor called MATC and suggested she teach a class on carving figures. “I figured it was meant to be,” said Cairns. Cairns says she has the ability to see a one-dimensional picture and carve it “in the round. That’s why I thought I could teach. Because I can visualize it.” She began teaching for MATC in 1991. She has honed her own skills by continuing private lessons and traveling all over the country to workshops and classes. Her latest challenge was a class on carving animals.
“This gal is one of the best,” one student said fondly of Cairns.
Woodcarving is not the diminutive hobby one might think. “You can go to classes anywhere in the world.” Cairns pulled out a woodcarving catalog and opened it to a page of European carvings. “I’d love to go to Europe and take a class in Austria,” she said enthusiastically. In the book, the smooth face of a small wooden statuette could pass for porcelain. European work is more realistic, according to Cairns and evidenced by the catalog, while American carvings are caricature-like, having dramatic laugh lines and comic features like exaggerated noses.
Cairns enjoys her class and appreciates the relationships carving helps build. “One of the biggest drawing effects is the camaraderie. Carvers are real free with their info. It’s real hard to be in a class anywhere and not pick up a bunch of stuff.”
Considering the course she teaches, Cairns says the current location at the Monona Senior Center is “a wonderful facility. The lighting is good and conducive to carving.” Because her class is slated from 12-3 on Tuesdays, her regular class, which during the school year is approximately 20 students, is mostly retired persons and many have been enrolled for several years. Cairns laughs. "They think I can do anything, so (teaching) is always a challenge."
Last Modified:
July 2, 2008
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