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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1998. PAGE 7.
/ /7 S
Time doesn't hinder senior's love of woodworking
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
Age has not slowed Stuart Taylor
of Nile as he continues to pursue his
love of conversation, carving and
taxidermy.
In conversation, he recounts story
after story of a different era.
There was a period when Taylor
walked the.roads of Alberta during
the Depression, looking for work.
He was among hundreds of men
who he says could be seen trailing
along roadways across the Prairies
and into the foothills.
We would work just to get some
food, he says.
He tells of working in the lumber
industry, farming and doing what
needed to be done.
He talks fondly of his family, a
first wife who died many years ago
and a second wife who is now ill.
Now in his 90th year, Taylor still
carves beautiful wildlife from
pieces of cedar, sumac, basswood
and cottonwood, though age and a
bout with the flu this winter has
limited the motion in his arms.
Surrounded by the richness of
wood in the sturdy beams, dark
paneling and a handcrafted
grapevine rocking chair, he displays
a lifetime of love for art created by
his hands.
Asked about his artistry, Taylor
says he was "born with a jackknife
in his hand."
Describing an encounter from his
youth, he
says, "I don't
believe in
those fortune
tellers."
However,
he does
believe that
there was
some truth in
what one
said so many
years ago.
"She said I
bring
withered
flowers back
to life."
And in
truth, that is
just what
Taylor does.
From a
scrape of
timber, a
majestic bull
moose
evolves. A
piece of
sumac is
transformed
into a zebra
with the
natural grain of the wood providing
the stripping.
In the early days, Taylor did not
always have cut blocks of wood
from which to craft his pieces.
Often a root discarded in the lumber
business in which he frequently
worked would inspire an item.
Through the years, his talent and
attention to detail increased,
marking out the feathers on the
wings of his soaring eagles or on
the breast of a crowing rooster.
The defined muscles carved in the
hindquarters of the moose comes
from years of butchering animals,
he says. "I know the shapes well."
This knowledge of animals and
his affinity for bringing things back
to life can also be seen in his
taxidermy work.
Situated high on the wall above a
fireplace in his "wooden" den is the
head of the first deer he ever shot as
well as the last.
The first was mounted using old
techniques, keeping the skull intact
and using it to form the head.
"That one kept much better than
the last one," says Taylor as he
describes how the new method of
replacing the skull with carved
wood just doesn't work as well.
On an adjacent wall hangs Billy,
the family goat, who for years,
entertained the neighbourhood
children as they played in the
nearby schoolyard.
Recently, says Taylor, a former
Nile resident returned for a visit.
Being told that was Billy hanging
on the wall, he gently stroked the
head, reminiscing about his
childhood years.
Encircling the floor in the cozy
den, a visitor will fmd his three-foot
statues of a native family, a
plainsman, Annie Oakley and
Pauline Johnson, a famous Brant
County poet from the turn-of the
century.
"My first wife took quite an
interest in her during the 1920s
(some 10 years after Johnson's
death) and collected everything she
could about her. She had books full
of newspaper clipping and poems.
When my wife passed away, I took
out the books and got interested in
Johnson myself."
Not only did Taylor carve the
human figure, but a replica of her
tombstone.
Hanging high above the fireplace
mantle are numerous sets of
longhorn cattle horns, gracefully
carved from sumac, one of Taylor's
favourite woods because of the
grain.
His work is such that several
people have thought the horns real
with the twists and turns so
accurate.
Tucked behind his grapevine
rocking chair in the den is a gun
case containing a beautifully crafted
gun butt made from bird's eye
maple.
Refurbishing old guns is another
of Taylor's skills.
"I just like to clean them up and
get them working again, he says.
From the den, Taylor leads you
into the rest of his home, where
samples of his artistry stand and sit
everywhere.
One of the more wonderful pieces
was done from memory after
visiting a taxidermy shop many.
years ago.
Taylor says a man was there
getting a job done and the natural
scene he described for the huge
work stuck with Taylor.
The man had been out hunting
and came across a tense situation. It
appeared that a wolf had killed a
caribou, but before the carcass
could be dragged off, a large bear
happened upon the kill.
When the man arrived, the bear
stood protectively on top of the
fallen caribou, one paw raised to
strike at the angry wolf.
The hunter had shot the wolf first,
then taken down the bear and
brought-three creatures home,
Taylor beautifully re-created, in
wood, how the scene may have
been.
However, Taylor's works are not
limited to wildlife. Filling shelves
and bookcases are his wooden
vases, turned on a lathe, picture
frames, clocks and functional oil
lanterns.
In his well-equipped workshop,
Taylor shows off his work-in-
progress, another moose and his
last, he says.
Hidden beneath cloths are a four-
foot fish, a mermaid, an owl and
woodpeckers.
In a glass case, three squirrels are
preserved, brought to him ,after
being killed accidentally.
Suspended on the wall is a
selection of canes, some designed
from the natural shape of a tree limb
while others are adorned with eagle
heads.
Not to limit himself to just
woodwork and taxidermy, Taylor
also has tools created from iron.
As he explains, for two or three
years after the war, most factories
were not equipped to make
replacement parts for farm
machinery because they had not yet
been converted back from wartime
needs. So, Taylor made what was
needed.
He lifts a huge vice grip from the
wall, quickly resting it on his knees.
The instrument is nearly two feet
long and is of considerable weight.
He looks up smiling. "Once I
made this, now I can hardly lift it."
Even with his advancing age,
Taylor continues to work at the
things he loves, in spite of losing
almost everything in a workshop
fire five years ago. He rebuilt and
re-acquired the needed tools.
Taylor is a man who not only has
a talent for creating wonderful
works from the withered flowers,
but bringing life to tales of time
which few today have a connection.
It is in those eyes and recounted
from that memory that the stories of
20th century in rural Canada can be
told.
Artistry
Stuart Taylor of Nile continues to carve majestic
pieces in his 90th year.
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