Читать книгу Woodcarving Illustrated Issue 79 Summer 2017 - Группа авторов - Страница 18

Woodcarving Illustrated

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FALL 2017

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A

professional woodcarver for more

than 50 years, Janet Cordell continues

to surprise, delight, and inspire with

her finely carved busts, detailed garden

scenes, thundering horses and poseable figures. Her

artistic vision and carving skill know no bounds and,

paired with her palpable passion and tireless efforts

to teach, promote, and rejuvenate the art, earn her

the title

Woodcarving Illustrated

Woodcarver of the

Year.

“Janet is a legacy in the woodcarving world and

one of the most accomplished woodcarvers I know,”

said the renowned carver Vic Hood. “She is also one

of the most sought-after instructors in the country.

Each year she teaches classes from coast to coast,

sharing her knowledge, skill, and innovations with

others. Her efforts have helped kindle our current

movement and jump-start a genre of woodcarving

that nearly died out.”

Janet is a member of the accomplished Denton

family of woodcarvers, who have a combined total

of more than 200 years of carving experience. “I

often feel that I was born into carving, rather than

deciding to become a woodcarver,” she said. “I cannot

remember a time when woodcarving and art were not

central factors in my life. It was just what our family

did, and it permeated every house I ever lived in.”

The Denton family ranch in Arkansas, where

Janet grew up, was situated in the beautiful Boston

Mountain range of the Ozarks. By the early 1960s,

Janet

Cordell

Presenting the 2017

Woodcarver of the Year

By Kathleen Ryan

the famous woodcarver Peter Engler was managing

the woodcarving shop at Silver Dollar City in Branson,

Mo., and welcomed the Dentons’ contributions. “Peter

always bought everything our family carved, no

questions asked,” she recalled.

By the age of 10, Janet had pieced together her

own set of tools and was using them on her father’s

discarded bandsaw blanks. A few years later, Janet

joined her family in carving breed models of dogs

and horses for Peter’s shop. “We lived so far out in the

country that there was really no place for a teenager to

get a job,” she said. “So if we wanted to earn money,

we carved.”

Although she enjoyed carving, Janet did not

intend to be a woodcarver forever, nor an artist in any

field. “In those days, I still thought there was a job

description for raising horses,” she said with a laugh.

“However, as I grew up, I began to understand the

value and originality of woodcarving as an art form

and came to appreciate the unique direction from

which my family approached this form of sculpture.”

Over the years, Janet has carved thousands of

pieces, fueled by her deep sense of spirituality, love

of nature, and artistic creativity. “I love it all—the

entire process of woodcarving, from conception to

completion,” she said. “It’s hard work, physically and

mentally, but it’s also very fulfilling and liberating.”

Janet and her husband, Richard, raised their family

of four children in the Ozarks, surrounded by the

mountains she loves. “My work place is my house, and

Photo by Marc Featherly