Into the wood

Home » Community

Posted October 22, 2021 | BY BETH WHITEHEAD | Special to the Gazette

Tom Kinney beamed as his five-year-old granddaughter cut dinosaurs into the bars of ivory soap. His eyes followed her little fingers in delight as they grasped the wood tools he had made for her and as her mind shut out the world around her except for the soap shavings falling between her chubby fingers.

Kinney is a master woodcarver. Rightfully so, he’s been carving for 30 years. Ever since he grew up among the walnuts and maples of Southern New York in the small village of Dansville, Kinney has loved the woods. His father and grandfather both worked with wood, fashioning furniture in their spare time.

Kinney didn’t start carving, however, until he began working for the University at Albany. As the Director of Professional Development for Rockefeller College, Kinney traveled constantly and continued to travel when he retired from the University and began to work in procuring education for healthcare workers.

During the long hours of travel, Kinney would carve. “Some of that time I was traveling 20 days a month,” Kinney said. “I’d be in five or six cities in a week, so I was able to pick up wood in different places.”

“The ones I use the most,” Kinney said, “would probably be basswood…it’s generally considered a hardwood, but it has really tight grain, so it holds detail and carves really good.”

Another wood he prefers is mahogany because of its deep red color. “I have about six hundred different species of wood in my wood storages,” he said. Still a traveler and also a member of the International Wood Collectors’ Society, Kinney has collected African woods, South American woods, you name it.

Kinney derives the greatest satisfaction from delivering exactly what customers envision on the wood of their choice. He recently completed some elephant statuettes that he carved out of Purple Heart wood—naturally purple wood—for organizations raising awareness for breast cancer.

Kinney designs bowls, pens, any kind of animal sculpture, busts, wall panels, and even seam rippers. He spends anywhere from one to six hours a day in his studio. The size of a one-car garage, the studio holds the four to five projects he’s always working on, along with the equipment and power tools.

Many of his works are commissioned but he retains that privilege to simply create for creation’s sake. This is what he loves. “To me, it’s the creative process,” Kinney said.

“For example,” he said, “I got a piece of wood from someone up in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and when I looked at it I said, “Gee, this might become a seal or maybe a prairie dog.” So, he put it on the shelf. Six months later he walked by and, “it said, I’m a prairie dog! And so I made a prairie dog out of it.”

For Kinney, woodcarving is an art but also a nod to the past. “To me it’s a connection back to the history of wood and carving and working with it,” he said. The very woods he works with, the 1890s redwood stumps from California and the 350-year-old cypress logs from the Ocklawaha River, are catalogues of history.

But Kinney’s eyes are not just for the past. The eyes of a tradesman examine his next piece, but the eyes of a grandfather gaze on the soap shards in his granddaughter’s hand. It’s those moments. The moments hearing her ask if she can carve two more soaps for her family. “Those are precious,” he said.

Visit rainbowspringsart.com/tom-kinney.html to see images of Kinney’s work.