Photo courtesy of Monte Fowler, MonteFowler.com
Darrell Turner, a member of the Hillsdale Country Carving Club, works on his carving of a horse.
Jerry Fowler’s workspace is littered with saws, wood blocks and a host of jagged or curved blades, a vacuum and a thick coating of sawdust on everything. As a woodcarver, his work tends to be dirty, but the results are surprisingly realistic carvings--such as meticulously detailed fish.
Fowler isn’t alone in his passion. Among Hillsdale and the local community, a passion for artistic expression thrives in subtle but strong numbers. Though a small community, the area harbors impressionists, oil painters, wood carvers, glass and bead workers, sculptors and more.
Many of them are considered amateurs, but the distinction between an amateur and a professional depends merely on artists’ decision to sell their work.
“Technically, I’d be considered a professional,” Fowler said. “There are people that do better than I do, but for a little guy that had no training, I do OK.”
Though they often sell their work, carvers don’t generally work for the money. Darrell and Phyllis Turner, who carve with Fowler, estimated that an individual work takes 56 hours on average.
“If you could get a dollar an hour, you’d be rich on everything you charge,” Darrell said.
The Turners and Fowler are members of a wood carvers club called Hillsdale County Carvers, which meets every Wednesday. According to Phyllis Turner, it doesn’t operate like an ordinary club.
“We don’t have dues and we don’t have an instructor,” she said.
Instead, the club strives to facilitate a good community for the craftsmen to work.
“You come out with something you can be proud of and you discuss all the world’s problems with your carving buddies,” Darrell said.
The results of such occasions are inspiring. Wood horses, cowboy caricatures, detailed fish, charming bears, airplane reliefs—all these were cut from simple blocks of bass wood.
Sometimes the work can be so realistic that one wouldn’t know it was carved.
“If you don’t leave a place where it looks carved, people won’t think it is,” Darrell said.
Such realism generally astounds customers, Fowler said. However, the opinion of their peers does not drive these artists; personal enjoyment is the cause.
For Ann Marie Bentley who won 2nd and 3rd place ribbons for two oil-based landscapes at the fair this year, painting is a means of relaxation as well as enjoyment.
Bentley said art has always been a strong influence throughout her life. Her father put on a ceramics show every year and she helped him. She also took lessons at the Toledo Museum of Art.
“The art teacher told me she didn’t think it’d be something I’d pursue,” Bentley said.
The hobby remained with Bentley. She said she was quickly surprised that many others enjoyed her work and requested copies.
“I didn’t think they had enough merit,” Bentley said. “It gives me great satisfaction that somebody likes something I created and that they wanted it in their home.”
Bentley generally uses the wet-on-wet technique for oil painting. This style allows the artist to overlap the background with the more detailed portion of the painting. Hence, the painter can articulate and expand certain portions of the painting without damaging the overall picture.
Her paintings, which are mostly landscapes, take about six hours to make. She said she is only really constrained by the time it takes to get ideas. After a picture is formed in her mind, she finishes the painting all at once, she said.
Bentley is but one of a great many of aspiring artists in the region. She belongs to both the Hillsdale and Branch County art guilds. Through this experience she said she has seen a large degree of talent.
“There is phenomenal talent in this area,” Bentley said. “Just the amount of information you get back is fabulous. It broadened a lot of my horizons.”
With such great talent concentrated in the area, Bentley said she was amazed there isn’t a specific building to host all the various arts in the community. If someone were to fund such an endeavor, there would be an outpouring of artists with a lot to offer, she said.
“It’s kind of like the diamond in the rough right now,” Bentley said. “If we could improve the art community in this area, it would draw more and more people to this area.”
Woodcarving and oil painting are merely cursory glances at the intricate network of arts in Hillsdale. Though local artists may not be prominent, they add a hint of culture that invigorates this small community.