I sculpt in an interpretive style, giving the viewer the opportunity to step into and and complete the sculpture in their own mind, relating to factors in their own lives.
I work primarily with found wood that I pick from the woods and river on my property in southwest Ohio, but I am always looking for interesting pieces wherever I’m at. With each piece I try to create motion and emotion. I feel strongly that one can see and feel humanity even in an inanimate object such as a jug or a pot. I get a feeling of satisfaction, worth almost, from taking an object that was once living and growing but has died or been killed and is simply lying on the forest floor, turning to dust. Picking the piece up and giving it a new forever life for people to enjoy both physically and mentally, in whatever shape or form it tells me it wants to be, is so rewarding.
One of my hopes and goals is to move people with my sculptures, so how a piece touches you can be both physical and emotional. There is no better feeling for me than to have someone see my pieces for the first time and put their hand over their mouth in awe. Not because of the beauty of my work, but because it moves them in some way. To me this shows me they are seeing into the piece and not just looking at it. Sometimes they ask, “Can we touch it?” Of course my reply is always “By all means, please do.” Some may purchase the piece to take home and enjoy every day, some simply enjoy the moment. Both choices carry the same significance to me. I feel I have moved someone, maybe made a difference or lifted them up in some way. That’s what it’s all about for me.
Ted Morlock started carving while still serving as the Chief Ranger for Assateague National Seashore. His work is interpretive sculpture with emphasis on the natural beauty of the woods he uses. His focus is on birds but he enjoys delving into other animals and subjects. He has competed and received several awards for his work in the Ward World Carving Championship since 2011 in the interpretive division. His work iS currently featured at the Ward Museum gift shop in Salisbury, MD; the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona; and the Horizon Fine Art Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
I have been carving for over 50 years. After going into my craft full time in 1982, I started doing shows up and down the east coast. My birds are all hand-carved basswood painted with acrylics. I use naturally weathered woods for bases in conjunction with brass, copper, steel, and cellulose for habitat. They sit on figured hardwood bases.
Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Rich spent most of his summer days tromping through the woods always headed to one of his favorite fishing holes. After high school he joined the Navy to see the world. It was while stationed in Virginia that Rich attended the Mid-Atlantic Wildfowl Festival and was just awestruck with the wonderful carvings that he saw. As someone with a love of nature and fishing in particular, Rich began carving in 1985 often focusing on nature and the beauty that he saw while pursuing some of his favorite pastimes. Rich’s interests were piqued on how he could go about creating such beauty out of wood. Ducks were Rich’s first interest and garnered much of his attention during his early carving days. Entering his carvings in the many competitions always kept him striving to better his art, to increase the creativity and the wow factor, always looking for that special pose that would catch the judge’s eye.
Fishing had always been a significant part of Rich’s life and continues to be to this day. His latest works center on recreating the beauty that Rich sees in the fish and of the days remembered pursuing them. Waterfowl and Fish have been the focus of most of Rich’s carvings but there has been an occasional flower, shore bird, or a puffin or two.
Rich often starts with a picture and creates a pattern and subsequent woodcarving with various degrees of detail. Often each scale is carved or burned into the wood to capture those intricate details. When painting, each scale is hand painted with several applications of media. He develops color with multiple coats of various paints, pastels and powders, using both an airbrush and artist brushes. Starting with an airbrushed base layer followed by pastels and powdered paint, he creates an accurate and long lasting piece of art.
With a full-time electric motor business, Cox had started carving as a hobby in the late 1970s after attending his first decoy show in Virginia Beach, about an hour north of where he lives along the North Carolina coast.
Cox has won numerous Best of Show awards for his work, at events from New York to Charleston, South Carolina. and was the Master Carver in 2011. He is a five-time North Carolina state champion and won Best of Show at the Ward Foundation World Championship in 2006.
Richard (Dick) Snyder graduated from Eastern University in 1974 with a BA in History and Political Science. His love of hunting ducks and geese led to his desire to start carving decoys. At that time there were no carving instructors in his area, so he learned by reading books and watching videos and just carving. Although he started carving decoys, he now prefers to carve songbirds and raptors.
Dick currently belongs to the Lancaster County Woodcarvers, William Rush Woodcarvers and Delaware Valley Woodcarvers. He competes at these shows and has won several Best of Show ribbons and scores of blue ribbons. He also competes at the Ward World Carving Championship Show. In 2013 he won Third Best of Show in the Intermediate Class. He moved to the advanced class and continues to win ribbons. Dick is a respected judge at local woodcarving shows as well as at the Ward World Carving Championship Show.
He has been teaching private classes for several years and has been asked numerous times by clubs and organizations to demonstrate carving techniques, habitat making and airbrushing. He also teaches weekly lessons to a recently organized carving club at Shannondell Retirement Village. He enjoys sharing his love of carving and is very proud when he sees the smiles on the faces of his students as they learn to carve.