MONTREAL, Wis. -- The Chiseler sees faces in driftwood.
"They usually evolve," said woodcarver John Lauzon of Montreal.
Lauzon carves whimsical faces in knots and creases of weathered wood. Under his chisel, an angel in flight blowing a heavenly horn emerges from a flat slab of beachwood. He carves lettering on signs he carved. He carves small, round faces that fit into half a golf ball set on a tee on a small, polished slab of tree ring.
Lauzon's workshop will be open the public next weekend, along with private studios of seven other artists on the Artists at Work Studio Tour.
Lauzon's business card refers to him as "The Chiseler," as does an ornamental license plate on his Harley Davidson motorcycle.
He took a carving class in the early 1980s after watching Kitty Kocal carve a goose on a post. He said, "I wish I could do that." She said, "That's half of it."
Lauzon was the only one of 14 students to complete the class. He said she wasn't much of a teacher, but she inspired his passion for woodcarving.
His first carving, a monk in a cowl, sits on a shelf in his workshop. He spent 80 hours working with one half-inch chisel and a mallet.
He says the figure's proportions aren't right -- the shoulders are too wide.
"I like him just like that," he said. "That's what art must be."
He was among the founding members of the Gogebic Range Carvers and Woodworkers Association. While other carvers worked on ducks, Lauzon carved faces, each one unique.
He names and numbers each face -- 1,507 so far. His Waterlogged Lumberjacks are carved from old wood raised from the bottom of Lake Superior. He writes a short story to accompany each of them, putting words to the imaginary life he draws out of the wood with his chisels.
Lauzon is an Ironwood native who has traced his lineage to 1600. His ancestors were French bell makers, not woodcarvers.
He and his wife Louise have six children and more than half a dozen grandchildren scattered around the country. They live with a charming mix of antiques, Lauzon's carvings, Louise's handmade quilts and crafts and native German heirlooms.
Gloves and Basswood
Lauzon carves at a big table in a roomy, well-lighted workshop built on the back of his garage. Dozens of chisels in different sizes with different blade shapes fill a case, racks and drawers.
Saws and Dremmel tools make rough cuts. A pair of sharpening wheels keep the hand tools razor sharp.
His carvings cover walls and shelves.
The carver wears mismatched gloves. A fingerless right glove, with padded palm, cushions the hand that wields the chisels. The left glove, of Kevlar -- the material of bulletproof vests -- protects his hand from the razor-sharp chisel blade.
"Never carve without a glove," he said. "I have slipped. This glove has saved me."
His favorite wood is basswood, preferred by carvers because it has a straight grain and no knots.
"It carves like butter," Lauzon said.
He makes his own stain, rendering tar in mineral spirits to create shades from light honey to near black. The more tar, the darker the stain.
He mixed basswood and popple in a tall cabinet that rests on tree-limb legs. They're not real tree limbs; Lauzon carved limbs from lumber.
"God can make a tree real easy," he said, but for the woodcarver, "it isn't so easy to make a tree."
The knobs on the shallow drawers are tiny carved faces. A carved mouse clings to a portion of the chest, which, when viewed in the mirror, reveals a carved face on the back side. Another carved mouse hangs on the side of a small carved bowl.
Old sleigh runners inspired him to build a wood sleigh trimmed in brightly painted carved figures from Dr. Seuss books.
Lauzon reworked a junked gun from Mississippi, carving a running rabbit, oak leaves and acorns into one side of the stock and a squirrel on the other. He carved a basketweave pattern into the grip instead of standard checkering.
He has done commissioned work -- carvings to top windows and entrance gates for a private lodge on Spider Lake in Mercer among them.
But even in retirement, while carving remains a passion, it is also a hobby.
"I don't want it to turn into work," he said. "I don't need to sell a lot for a living."
--John Lauzon's wood carvings are in the Hoth Lee Gallery in Port Wing; Gallery 51 at Manitowish Waters; The Nonesuch Gallery in Ontonagon, Mich.; Waterlogged Lumber Co. in Ashland; and Geisness Gallery in Boulder Junction.
