Compelling caricatures

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2015 (3880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s funny where a trip to go get some plywood can take you — just ask Bert Bodnaruk.

“I was just out buying plywood,” Bodnaruk, a prize-winning wood carver from North Kildonan, told The Herald. “Les Gens De Bois Woodcarving Club were doing a display. The guys there convinced me to come try. So, I did.”

Unexpectedly, Bodnaruk took to the art of carving wood. Twelve years later and a stack of “best in show” ribbons later, he’s still at it.

“I was never good at art,” Bodnaruk, who is retired from the printing business, said with a chuckle. “I can’t even draw a straight line. But it seems I have a penchant for wood carving.”

Bodnaruk became a member of Les Gens De Bois Woodcarving Club, which hosts weekly workshops at Bernie Wolfe Community School (95 Bournais Dr.). He then set about teaching himself the craft with the help of their extensive woodcarving library (“probably the best in the province,” according to Bodnaruk).

Bodnaruk likens wood carving to problem solving.

“It’s unforgiving,” he explained. “It’s all subtraction. You take (wood) away, but you can’t add it back in.”

Working primarily with basswood, like many other wood carvers Bodnaruk started carving lifelike recreations of birds.

“Birds are fascinating,” Bodnaruk said. “But when you’re carving at a high level you have to be precise.”

Looking for a more creative outlet for his newfound passion for carving, Bodnaruk made the switch to caricatures.

“At my age, I just like to have fun with it,” the 77-year-old, who carves and paints all his pieces from the basement workshop in his North Kildonan home, said with a grin.

Bodnaruk’s first caricature carving was a cowboy. Since then, he’s gone on to do everything from “goofy Christmas stuff” to intricate cyclists, colourful clowns to cute, cartoon-like rodents. And, of course, more cowboys.

“I’ve always loved cowboys,” he said, displaying a personal favourite: a detailed old cowpoke, wearing scuffed boots and wrinkled roper’s gloves, hiking up a well-worn pair of chaps after a hard day’s ride.

His latest is a grizzled old lumberjack leaning on a double bit axe. Carved out of one solid piece of basswood (as most of his pieces are), Bodnaruk estimates the piece has taken him “about a hundred hours.”

This year, the Prairie Canada Carvers’ Association is featuring a display of Bodnaruk’s award winning caricatures at their 2015 Carving Show and Competition. Taking place April 18 and 19 at Canad Inns Polo Park (1405 St. Matthews Ave.), from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The annual event draws carvers from across Manitoba,Ontario, and the northern States. The competition is expected to draw 300 handcrafted carvings and turnings from over 100 entrants.

“The competition is pretty tough,” Bodnaruk, whose carvings have placed or taken “best in show” many times over the years, admits. And while Bodnaruk carves as a hobby — “something different, to relax the mind”— he believes entering carving competitions offers an opportunity to check out what other carvers are doing, to pick up some tricks of the trade, and to get inspired.

“It pushes you that extra step,” he said. “You try a little harder at competition.”

For more information on the Prairie Canada Carvers’ Association 2015 Carving Show and Competition, visit the website www.prairiecanadacarvers.com

Facebook.com/TheHeraldWPG
Twitter: @heraldWPG