[ ♪♪♪ ]
Wow.
Oh, these are adorable.
Smells like 1927.
Maybe carve a face in there.
That's a little too fancy for me.
Look at that color.
Oh, my.
Wow.
Usually I look for wood
that I can carve a face or an animal,
or something I can deconstruct,
like interesting table or chair legs.
I love to carve faces into the fish floats.
It's old Doug fir, and it carves pretty nice.
Oh, wow.
This is an old hat millinery form
that they would build hats with.
And you can see all the little nail marks
from the maker having put together,
you know, pinned his ribbon there.
And it's just got such a good energy,
and it's so smooth from years of him rubbing his hand on it.
So I love the wear of this.
Somebody -- I flipped it over, and I realized
somebody built it for Violet in 1943,
so that was kind of exciting.
Most people wouldn't see the beauty in this;
they would just see the nails sticking out,
it's coming apart.
It talks about a simpler time when people used what they had,
and that's kind of what my art's about.
More than I can carry this time.
It's a pretty good haul.
I just can hardly wait to get home and get started.
Found a few things today.
SALES ASSOCIATE: Good.
BROCKWAY: It's different from going to an art store
and seeing a raw canvas or a block of wood.
To me, I like the energy of a past life,
you know, elevating the forgotten
into something beautiful.
[ ♪♪♪ ]
I don't necessarily want to go for realism.
To me that's kind of boring.
I kind of just want something fun and interesting,
maybe a face people didn't expect to see.
I never go for perfection.
I like to see the artist's fingerprints on a piece.
I like to see the flaws.
I like to see the personality.
I call it urban folk art.
I just want a nice charm.
There's an old saying in wood cutting
that you measure twice and cut once.
I don't measure.
I just start cutting until it feels right.
[ chisel grinding ]
I visualize a man's head,
because it's a nice, thick piece of wood.
So as I carve it, it just kind of comes to life.
It'll just take on a life of its own.
And he's going to tell me what it wants to become.
I just listen to the wood.
[ whirring slows ]
Okay, it's starting to take shape.
I've still got to take a little bit more out of his neck
to pop his jaw.
Smooth that edge in there.
So I got this interesting post,
and I just like that it kind of had a neckline.
[ grinding ]
I never know what I'm getting.
This is a piece of cedar,
so it's going to carve and cut really nice.
Okay, let's go get his face started.
[ ♪♪♪ ]
Planning kills the joy for me.
Like if it's just so planned out and I have steps A to Z,
you know, where's the happy surprise, the accident?
Getting close, getting close.
I mean, that's kind of fun.
Of course, the trusty drumsticks.
These are a little more ornate.
It's like, all right, dude, what's going to work?
These are kind of fun.
I'm kind of stuck on those stumpy arms for some reason.
It's kind of blocky, so maybe a fat and stumpy leg.
Look at those.
Oh, yeah, that's it.
It's like making something from nothing.
This was an old piece of a fence in some junk,
and all of a sudden, it's come to life.
[ ♪♪♪ ]
This is a horse I made called --
I call it "Trigger Happy."
So this is kind of my protest piece.
I'm kind of part engineer, you know, how things work.
And I don't know how things work,
so I just figure it out and I make it up,
and I think that opens me up to a lot of possibilities.
[ ♪♪♪ ]
Most of the pieces I make are for sale,
but I'm almost more excited when they come home to me.
I love them.
The carvings really come to life
when you add a little bit of painting and color.
It just brings out a whole dimension,
and that's when I feel like they're done.
I always say the artist is the child that survived.
And for me that's really true.
To have that sense of wonder and excitement
where you're one with your art and your imagination,
it's really exciting.