Woodcarving is Joe’s career.  He got started in Germany where he lived for 20 years.  He went to Germany with the US military and after his service he went back to Germany to work for the American Bank.  While working at the bank he saw an advertisement from a professional wood carving shop wanting to hire and train new people to carve wood items to sell.  Joe studied art in college in Minnesota and thought the woodcarving would be a new way to use his love of drawing and painting. 

To get him started, Joe’s boss demonstrated the cuts in the wood and Joe would follow his directions.  At the end of this training period, he was put to work carving the orders he was given at the beginning of each week to be completed by the end of the week. His first projects were to carve small goats and lambs to go into Nativity scenes.  On his first goat three legs came off and it took him two days to carve one small goat.  However, Joe persevered and became good at his job.

Joe teaches year-round in Westminster and Lakewood and has 30 students.  He has also taught during Carving in the Rockies.

Joe enjoys carving in basswood, but his favorite woods are cherry, walnut, and mahogany.  He expressed that he enjoys the challenge that each piece of wood presents to him.

Much of Joe’s time is spent researching art and going back to his art studies.  He wants to turn some of those projects into carvings.

Joe is married to a woman from Germany and German is spoken in the home.  The children are all bilingual.