Time to sign up for our Annual Event. Festivities will include among other things a jazz performance by Bill Walker, a silent art auction (including a selection of wood carvings by long-time SCVAS volunteer and artisan, Jack Cole), goals for the upcoming year, new and old voices from our community, bird presentation and a quiz… Don’t miss the fun!
The featured local artists for our Annual Event Silent Auction are Jack Cole and John Muir Laws. Read about them below.
John Muir Laws
A principal leader and innovator of the worldwide nature journaling movement, Jack is a scientist, educator, and author, who helps people forge a deeper and more personal connection with nature through keeping illustrated nature journals and understanding science. His work intersects science, art, and mindfulness. Trained as a wildlife biologist and an associate of the California Academy of Sciences, he observes the world with rigorous attention. He looks for mysteries, plays with ideas, and seeks connections in all he sees. Attention, observation, curiosity, and creative thinking are not gifts, but skills that grow with training and deliberate practice. As an educator and author, Jack teaches techniques and supports routines that develop these skills to make them a part of everyday life.
Learn more at https://johnmuirlaws.com
Jack Cole
I started carving 40 years ago. I didn’t know what kind of wood to use, and only used profiles from field guides. As a result the heads were too skinny. I eventually threw all those away. For several years I sold them for $100, and they financed a birding trip I took with a friend for 20 years. Then I began just giving them to friends, and even some people I never knew or met. I’ve mailed them around the country, and even to England. I got my basswood from Southern Lumber until it burned down. Now I have blocks mailed from a lumber yard near my hometown in upper Michigan. I began by just carving ducks native to North America, but soon added ducks, loons, grebes, swans and geese from around the world. The only tools I use are a band saw, an X-Axto knife and two grades of sandpaper. And of course wood putty. I buy the glass eyes from a taxidermist. The most common question I’m asked is how long does one take. If the painting isn’t too complex, and if I worked 8 hours a day, the answer is about 4 days. I suspect I’ve carved at least 300, multiples of some species. The most: wood ducks, 4 at once. I "worked" at the SCVAS front desk for over 20 years for one or two Saturdays a month, and I enjoyed it very much.