Carving out a life of artistry

DE QUEEN, Ark.With the letters "A" "R" and "T" painted yellow up and down it, a thick, stout log rises to attention alongside U.S. Highway 71 just a handful of miles east of De Queen.

Propped up as a place to hang chainsaws, the log announces what you see here at this roadside space: an American Indian, bear strumming the guitar, mystical wise man, eagles, a howling wolf and much more-concoctions of the imagination all carved into wood.

This sculptural playground is where Nick Bero and his father, Fred, work diligently with craft and a true love for the medium. It's obvious in the work, an artistry performed inside an open-air woodshed of sorts. The stove keeps a fire lit. A bear holds a welcome sign. Chainsaws and other tools of the woodworker's trade fill a table. An American flag flies. Cars whip past.

For the past several years, the Beros have been regulars here in De Queen, staying a couple months out of the year before they head elsewhere. They've been back in town a couple weeks now.

Elsewhere may be home base in the Yakima, Wash., area, where they concentrate on stone sculpture, or it may be Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains or out west in California, a spot about an hour north of San Francisco-all places where they stay a while, make their art, find friends, craft visions into the wood.

The younger Bero says they're self-described snowbirds from up in Washington. "And right now there's just a bunch of snow up there, and we always try to get out of the cold weather," he admitted. "So we've been coming down south since about 2000."

Near Tennessee's Dollywood, they have another place to practice their craft. Their path took them through De Queen for a few years before the gentleman who owns their De Queen spot discovered them, Bero said. That's how they landed here, where they share their art with the local folks.

"It sort of happened all on its own," Bero reflected about the serendipity. While here, the Beros have made friends, tutored woodworkers and even found an apprentice.

On this day, Bero was changing the hardware on his chainsaw, preparing to carve a nine-foot Sasquatch. Nearby stood another critter, a hulky rodent he called a nutria rat meant for the U.S. Air Force's 707th Maintenance Squadron.

Bero likened it to a small beaver. It will hold a flag, and carved into it is a trusted, time-honored maintenance tool. "Of course they're maintenance so they've also got their wrench," said the woodcarver. This order was a rush job. Most orders they can crank out within a week. They do work inspired by their own ideas, but also make custom jobs.

"Half of it is planning and the other half luck, I guess," Bero said.

They sought out work in Tennessee because of the national park and people streaming through the area. They've been coming to De Queen about five or six years.

Inside the shed area, one finds the full range of their talents displayed. In one corner you find bed frames, one queen sized with owls on all four posts. A king sized bed frame has an eagle headboard. "Of course all cedar," Bero said. Cedar's good in many ways: weathering and bug resistance, lack of rotting.

"And of course the bright red color is so attractive to me as an artist," Bero said. He sees himself as an artist making a living at it. "I guess that's the difference," he says.

Tools of their art? Chainsaws sit here and there. Dremels. Die Grinders. Other power tools. "We have this kind of funny chipper tool they make in Germany," Bero said. It's described as a power gouge. "It just makes a very pleasing texture to the eye and is a real great mass finishing tool." It's half sanding, he says.

As to the process, they start with a piece of wood that's the right size, right proportion. Sometimes they can use large, hollow pieces if thick enough. They do a lot of salvage. They don't like to cut the wood down for a job.

"We're generally in the bringing them back to life business," Bero said.

Sculpting and forming with a saw, they do as much as they can before the other power tools are employed to refine a piece. Then there's detailing with a Dremel. Coloring is important. Sometimes this means burning, attention paid to the shading. Sealing is the final part in this whole process.

"To retain their fresh look and to keep them from checking as much as we can," Bero said.

Most artists have a favorite medium, whether it's clay or a certain type of paint or material for sculpture. What is it about wood that attracts the younger Bero?

"As a sculptor it's probably the fastest, more permanent media for sculpting, you know, clay being a little bit faster but it's a little less permanent," Bero said. Wood's also softer than stone. "Stone's way more permanent. We actually do steel sculpture, as well. I've tried my hand at a little bit of bronze."

For him, wood provides close to instant gratification. Some small pieces may just take an hour, perhaps a little bear coming out of a stump. But you'd never know it from the final product. When it comes to subjects, they may go through phases, as if the works are part of a personal study.

"Other times it's where we're headed," Bero said. He says the De Queen area and California share the presence of Native American tribes in common, so such themes may appear in the sculptures they create here. Eagles, which he loves, are popular everywhere.

Fred's sculpted for 37 years, while Nick has carved at it for 17.

"I remember a specific career day when I was about 7 years old in school. I heard about all the jobs and these people and this and that. It sounded really boring, you know?" recalled the younger Bero. The job he has now? Never that.

"It always keeps us wondering because of all the custom work," Bero said. Sometimes he has no idea what people will want. But that ability to create from this uncertainty is what they must be ready to do as artists who make a living from this.

"I believe we're all artists in some way," Bero said, "but as you know as a working artist, it is a little different. It keeps me guessing all the time."

If you amble into the shed area, you will find art that's not just theirs. Walking sticks, among other woodwork pieces, catch your attention. They're carved by a local woman, Sharon Snow. She's an apprentice to the Beros. She also works on stained glass.

"When we're in the area, we always inspire," Bero said. People find them and adopt them as mentors.

Nearby, what looks like a guillotine made of wood is cutting a log of happy yellow smiley faces, as if each smiley face is sliced mechanically from the log.

Snow grew up in North Dakota, where trees are sparse. A state with one tree, she jokes. She can even tell you the story of how she fell out of a tree with branches she memorized by heart. So when she and her husband moved to De Queen, the trees here amazed her, as did the Beros.

Snow started by simply watching them. "I said I believe I can do that, so they said buy a chainsaw," she recalled. She finally did it, and they allowed her to hang out. "They didn't have enough sense to send me home," she says.

The woodwork fascinated her. She'd always been a big fan of it. "And people making things with their hands," Snow said. She also liked the guys-"nice people," she says. They never charged a penny for teaching her.

"Every time I'm here I learn something," she said.

Her guitar playing bear looks out on the highway as trucks rumble by. "He's a busy bear," says Snow, who can play the guitar herself, as well as make leatherwork and other art. She's working on her first bench now.

"It's just something that I never knew I'd grow up and live in a place like this. I figured it was in books. Arkansas has just got trees. It's just beautiful, I just love it. I like being outside. This is my preference of things to do," Snow said.

And in meeting the Beros, she's found people who share this preference: carving something new from the trees all around us.