Who would have thought that cutting off a finger would end up being a good thing? That’s exactly what happened to woodcarver Steve Brown while working in his father’s Madisonville woodworking shop one Saturday in the late 1970s.
“The table saw and I got in a fight, and the table saw won,” Brown recalled. “It cut three fingers on my left hand, one completely off. So in recuperating, I got my old pocketknife out and started making a few chips.”
Fortunately, Brown’s finger was reattached, and all digits healed. But he sold most of his woodworking equipment and began to focus solely on carving, specifically caricature figures and dioramas. Over the next four decades, he would perfect his craft, publish two books on woodcarving, and hold numerous seminars on the art and technique of the trade. As is true for many artists, he had a rough beginning.
“I started out on my own, and it was very difficult,” Brown said. “I was using just a knife, and I had seen other guys use chisels.”
In 1978, he attended a seminar in Arkansas, where he met Harold Inlow, who often was called by fellow artists the “Godfather of Caricature Carving ”
“I mean, I just fell head over heels about the way he was carving and using the chisels,” Brown said of Inlow’s work. “So I went back out each year for the next eight years” to learn from the artist.
During those years, Brown was working full time to help run his family’s two nursing homes in Hopkins County. “When they sold the nursing homes [in 1986], I applied at other places … I found it was hard to get a job at [my] age,” he said. “I’d been teaching all those years, and I already had established a clientele in different venues, so I told my wife, ‘Well … shoot, I’ve already got the contacts, so I might as well start [teaching full time].’ ”
Brown also was perfecting his pen figures during that time. These unique writing tools are carved wooden figures that double as a pen. He now sells them in kits that enable beginning carvers to fashion their own whimsical pens.
He wrote a book, Carving Pen Figures, for those who wanted to learn more about the craft. Published in 1998, the guide remains in print.
Brown’s subsequent book, the 2003 Carving Figural Kaleidoscopes: A New Twist—Collide-A-Scope, expanded on his use of multifunctional artwork. He put his own spin on the traditional kaleidoscope, creating carved figurines that double as the timeless reflective-pattern toys.
“Steve is a different carver in the fact that he thinks about a carving in a way that there’s a secondary use out of it,” said Dwayne Gosnell, a fellow woodcarver. “I like the carving to be fun to look at or make a humorous statement. With Steve doing his pen kits, he’s actually getting a function out of the carvings.”
Gosnell met Brown about six years ago but has followed his work and teachings for nearly 20 years, calling him a “superhero” in carving circles.
“I knew of Steve because he was published in magazines … and when I was young in the carving world, we lived for those magazines,” Gosnell said. “Steve being a teacher around the country, his name would always pop up where classes were being held. I knew of him and his name and his style and just by the work he was doing and having published.”
Gosnell said it was an instant connection the first time he met Brown face to face, and they remain good friends.
“Steve is still a very big influence in what I do in my carving journey,” Gosnell said. “He’s very much a mentor to me. He was the one who showed me how to market myself to a larger audience. With that, I’m grateful because I probably would have still been teaching one or two people.”
Gosnell said that, even though Brown is considered one of the best caricature artists around, Brown never rests on his laurels.
“Steve is one of those guys who—even though at the top of his game—is still learning,” Gosnell said. “I have a deep respect for someone who is as good as he is but still wants to learn and get better. For me, that shows he has drive and ambition, even though he’s considered one of the top caricature carvers out there.”
The 69-year-old Brown has won numerous first-place awards in carving shows across the United States, including those at the International Woodcarvers Congress. He was inducted into the Caricature Carvers of America in 2014. His intricately detailed figures range from 2-18 inches tall.
Brown often is asked for commission work. He said he has done a few commission pieces, albeit reluctantly.
“I just carve what I like, and if it sells, then somebody else liked it besides me,” he said. “They’ll see the figure, and if it’s a piece that makes them laugh or smile, that’s when you know you’ve done your job.”
Where does Brown find his inspiration? He said that, even though he finds ideas on the internet these days, there is no substitute for great observational skills to help a caricature artist draw out and exaggerate a subject’s features.
“When I first started, it was just everyday life. I’d see somebody in a restaurant, and my wife would ask, ‘Why in the world are you staring at that guy?’ ” Brown said. “I’d pick up just life in general, go with the flow, and come up with my own ideas.”
Born and raised in Madisonville, Brown decided in 2013 to trade bluegrass for ocean sands and now observes life at his new home in Freeport, Florida.
He said he has backed off a bit on woodcarving, but he is still active with the Caricature Carvers of America and continues to host the biannual Renegade Woodcarvers Roundup in Tennessee.
Steve Brown’s woodcarving art and artistry can be found on his website, sbrownwoodcarving.com.