Cat Carving

[Paul_Guraedy]

Good mornin’ my frien’s, I have been off the message board for the last couple of weeks. A group of former Peace Corps Volunteers and Missionaries who taught with me in Africa during the mid-1960’s decided that I was the one to organize a reunion. We had a great time here in the Ozarks; but, it did take me away from my computer; but, not from woodcarving. I took an owl I am working on and used the time to burn in some feathers.

None of these folks had been to the ranch and we gave them the grand tour. This, naturaly, entailed a visit to my carving porch. While looking at some of my carvings one person remarked, “That is a copy of the Key Marcos Cat!� Although I did not remember the name of the cat, I had used a picture of a pre-Columbian cat found in an excavated site in Florida as a “go by� for the carving.

This was the third piece of my carving career (1980’s) and the first deviation from my intention of carving duck decoys. But, that’s not the subject of this posting.

The original of the Key Marcos Cat is famous primarily due to its remarkable resemblance to Egyptian sculpture and that is what first attracted my attention. It probably has been copied by many carvers (Tangerman did one in which he refined the piece to include human feet); since it is a beautiful piece of art.

But the thing that interests me the most is the Key Marcos Cat as a testimonial to the ability of woodcarvers throughout history. Today we have a variety of power tools, the different handtools probably reach into the hundreds, sandpaper in literally thousands of grits, and yet, some woodcarver probably using only seashells, or at the most stone implements, did as good as we can do today.

The first photo is the original, the second Tangerman and the third mine. It is quite humbling………..

[Thor]

Your cat is wonderful. The influence from past carvers is the link through time that is a wonder of our work.
Thanks for showing that to us.
Thor

[whitecree]

That is a rather spooky looking cat figure. I can imagine that as a 6 foot figure carved into a tree trunk on some little used trail in the woods, and an old native guide intones solemnly "To go further, bwana, means death to us all!"

Tools matter little. What matters is the drive and the vision to create something.

[Nancy-G]

Paul - if I had carved that third one I wouldn't feel very humble