I have all of these ideas and can’t shut them off. Sometimes I wish I could

June 12, 2016
“I build furniture. I am a master craftsman. I build rustic furniture that is bulky, big and old. I do leatherwork too and can make any leather purse. Metal art is the same way. I have been doing this all of my life. I enjoy it. I don’t think I remember when I wasn’t doing this. I was born and grew up in a house where that trailer is now. I started making things in my back yard and it got to where it was all I thought about. I don’t really sleep. I sleep in spells. I get an idea and have to get up and draw it.”
“Does that make you a little crazy?”
“Most people around me think so. I have all of these ideas and can’t shut them off. Sometimes I wish I could. My mind feeds things to me. When I think it is hot enough I have jump up and draw it before my mind replaces it with something else. I have tons of drawings and so many ideas that it is hard to get back to them. I make furniture for antique shops and sometimes for people who want something made. I am pretty swamped with different things. Everything thing I make, the wood is usually 100-200 years old. I go find old houses and barns in the woods and take that wood and transform it. People will bring me something and ask what I can make from it. I get them to leave it here because after a while, it will tell me what it wants to be. The mistake is trying to make something into what it isn’t supposed to be. I go into old houses and can feel the spirit of the family in the wood. A couple of times, I got wood and left it laying around and it gave me bad dreams. Some places I couldn’t take anything. With me, everything is a feeling. Even people. I use my phone very little because I like to see a person and their expressions when I am speaking with them and listen to what isn’t said. Everyone you meet, you were supposed to meet. Everything in your path for that day is exactly what it is supposed to be. If you don’t believe, you don’t see. I love sitting on the beach at night listening to the waves. Those are the real things. I have to slow myself down sometimes to see the real things.”
“What does it feel like when you are working?”
“Peace. I am at peace. I start with one board and start building. As I build, it comes. When I start, I believe it is going to come. It hasn’t failed me. If I don’t believe it, I have pieces almost finished and shelved in the corner because I ran out. I have to take it apart and turn it into something else. I want to eventually have my own line of furniture. Sometimes it gets lonely because people don’t follow you. I could be out talking to someone and an idea comes that is so powerful that I have to come and start putting it together. A lot of people don’t get that. Listening to people talk sometimes slows my mind down enough to let things soak in. Some people may call that crazy. I am in tune to the universe and listen to it, but it also limits the people that I am around. I think our spirits have been here many times before in other people. I love life. I lay in bed waiting for the sun to come up so I can do it again. The good and bad of life comes out in my work. When I start it is emotional, then my mind takes over. When I am through, I don’t feel the same way as when I started. I am more relaxed. I am a free spirit. It was years before I started taking this seriously. I was a maintenance man, a carpenter and a welder. This became full time about 4 or 5 years ago. I also love horses. I started riding racehorses when I was 12 and could do anything on a horse. Started playing polo because it was fast and I like the adrenaline. It was something I loved and it was never work. There was freedom when I was riding and in tune with the horse. It has been quite a life now that I think about it.”

2 Comments

  1. sonya bennett

    What a fascinating and interesting man he is. I hope that I can meet him soon and look at his beautiful works of craft. All art is a gift of the Holy Spirit, I believe and boy is he tuned in…. sonya

    Reply
  2. Juanita Smith

    Quite a life he calls it and I must agree!

    Reply

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