GENTRY — Not everyone can look at a dried up tree stump and roots and see an image of a raging bull, horses and other Old West figures, but Curtis McChristian, of rural Gentry, does and brings them out for others to see as well.
A love of horses, animals and a western lifestyle is drawn, etched and carved into the artwork of McChristian, 46, whose only formal art training was during his years in Gentry schools. His mother is somewhat of an artist too, and he grew up loving art and began by drawing and painting. But his work progressed into carving in wood, cutting ostrich eggs and etchinginto stone.
“I think of something, and then I try it and go do it,” McChristian said.
McChristian loves horses and used to train barrel racing horses and cutting horses. He was also involved in roping and the rodeo circuit.
An accident and serious injury several years ago changed all that. Though he can describe the awesome floating feeling of riding a cutting horse, he had to give up his work with horses. But he has channeled his love of the animals and the western lifestyle into his art.
His home is somewhat of a gallery in itself, with door frames cut from cedar logs and western-style furniture made of McChristian’s own designs and plans.
He started building furniture by making baby cradles for family members, but he’s made kitchen counters, coffee tables, cedar cabinets and more.
When he installed a stone floor in his brother’s home, he got the idea of carving into the flagstone and tried it. He completed the floor with a carving of a reining horse in the center.
He’s carved tree stumps with a chain saw - another idea he tried anddoes well. He’s made such items as a calf’s bust and an owl.
Though he originally gave most of his work away, today his artwork has become his livelihood.
He doesn’t really advertise. He simply gets an idea, makes it and, if somebody likes it, they buy it from him.
“I pray about it and then make what I want. If people like it, they buy it,” McChristian said.
His art studio and workshop have a variety of items he’s working on and numerous other carvings and pieces he’s finished.
Lately, he’s been making animal carvings and decorative furniture pieces from old tree stumps and tree roots.
For a time, he was carving door panels on wooden interior doors, adding such images as a bull elk in the mountains, cowboys roping cattle and longhorn steers on the western range.
McChristian said he drew his ideas out on paper and then transferred them to the pine door panels. With the use of chisels and Dremel tools, he carved the images into the wood and then finished them out with stains and coats of varnish. But instead of continuing with the door panels, he began making cabinets with carved doors.
“People didn’t want to buy something fixed to their home because if they moved, they couldn’t take it with them,” he said.
By building cabinets and doing his carving work on the cabinet doors, people could take his artwork with them should they move.
When not building custom furniture pieces or carving in wood andsometimes stone, Mc-Christian likes to do pencil drawings of horses, other animals and people too. The walls of his home are a testimony to his work.
McChristian lives and creates his works of art on Floyd Moore Road, just west of WPA Road. Hesaid he plans, someday, to build a studio along WPA Road because of all the visitors coming and going from the Safari but hasn’tgotten it done yet.
For more information, McChristian can be reached by telephone at 736-8731.
Family and Friends, Pages 3 on 07/27/2011