Joe Lucero: Wood
I began my wood sculpting career at age six after I received a
pocket knife for Christmas. At age seventeen I placed that
wonderful career on hold to become a U.S. Marine, then a U.S.
Marshal, and then to raise a family. Nearly thirty years later I
was ready to resume the work that I sincerely love—releasing
the beautiful things that are locked away in simple pieces of
wood. I started doing traditional carving and quickly became
bored with doing things that others had done before me. After
I was comfortable with extremely sharp tools and had plenty of
Band-Aids on hand, I began to let the wood speak to me and
to let me know what it really wanted to become. Wood has
such a nice sense of humor and I try to bring that out in my art.
I journeyed into the wood carving guild in San Diego,
California and had a wonderful opportunity to learn from the
masters and to display my own work. After moving to
Winchester, Virginia last year, I found entire forests of beautiful
wood and continued to feed my passion of releasing the inner
beauty of trees. I enjoy doing commissions, making specialty
carvings, jewelry boxes, mirrors, and furniture.