Sweepstakes carver credits patience and appreciation for nature in wowing judges

You can’t help but notice several black bears and one bobcat-- taxidermy displays- populating the country home of Kenny Miller and his wife Linda, just east of Wyoming. The natural world obviously occupies space in their hearts as well as their living quarters. Taking a seat at their dining table the reporter spots another trophy mount, a fish beautifully positioned atop a piece of driftwood; probably a treasure from an up-north fishing weekend. On closer inspection, though, the visitor realizes the delicate and colorful creature is made of wood. Miller says the fact that the piece was mistaken for being a real fish is a compliment. This is the wood-carving for which Miller took home the State Fair Sweepstakes prize, surpassing dozens of other creative activities competitors. Considering this black crappie is the first item he’s ever entered in the state fair, Miller is enjoying this warm initiation into the world of competitive carving.

The state fair critique gave him a 99.5 out of a possible 100 points. “Nice attention to detail,” a judge jotted down on the scoring sheet. Miller worked over 120 hours just in carving the black crappie out of one piece of basswood, and that doesn’t include the painting. One of his buddies in the Lakes Area Woodcarvers Club convinced him to submit the fish to the competition. Miller has urged many walking sticks out of diamond willow tree trunks for friends and family, but he hadn’t tackled carving something life-sized until the fish. He remembers doing geese-in-flight carvings to hang as wall decor, when he was about 12-years-old; but it wasn’t until after retirement from the printing industry that he got serious about carving. The life of a carver is usually pictured as a solitary one, a figure alone with his tools absorbed in a chunk of wood. For Miller, carving is a social thing. He said he would never have taken on a project like the fish without help and encouragement from friends in his local wood carving club.

“I got the pattern and I didn’t know where to even begin,” he explained. The guys shared techniques and tips that they’ve perfected over the years, like how to approach carving fish scales. A little known fact is the amount of drawing and sketching needed for doing carving. There are tricks to getting fish scales spaced widely where the fish has some meat on him, and compacting the scales into a tighter pattern on other parts of the fish body. “I don’t consider myself an artist,” Miller humbly maintains. Luckily, he adds, the club invited an artist in to give a class. Over the course of two, 8-hour days she made painters out of these guys, Miller said. The state fair fish even has a subtle sheen making it look like it just came out of the water. Miller learned how to apply that in the class. Painting the crappie was almost as gratifying as carving it. “...when I started to put the spots on the big fins then it came to life for me,” Miller said.

Linda thinks that for her, it was after Miller painstakingly applied the blood red color inside the gill slits that a truly animated quality emerged. She’s not a carver but she’s very supportive and proud of her husband’s projects. According to Miller, the thing that sets a run-of-the- mill carver apart from a sweepstakes carver would have to be patience. Miller says he walks away from a piece for a time and comes back to it with fresh eyes. He has to be able to objectively scrutinize every detail and see if it looks right. Miller did the big fin along the spine of the fish and then went back and knicked some tiny flecks out because it looked “too perfect.” Real fish get nibbled on and roughed up during their lifetime, he explained. ***** The Lakes Area Wood Carvers Club meets monthly at the Forest Lake Senior Center. They get together through the fall and winter time and take a break over summer. There’s an “open carving” session Tuesdays. Contact the Senior Center, located on Southwest Fourth Street, 651-464-5833.