Converting nature's gifts to rustic art

Creativity, it is said, is all about thinking out of the box, making the imagination soar and letting the free spirits take over. What if the proverbial box were chopped with a chainsaw?

This menacing tool, which has inspired many gory, blood-oozing horror flicks, has taken a creative dimension in the hands of Gilbert Nicely and his daughter, Casie Nicely, carving out rustic furniture from driftwood, tree stumps, and barks.

"I never felt intimated by the chainsaw," said Casie Nicely, "and when Daddy gave me a chance to use it, I felt that I was in control."

This tool of the trade is a legacy that was passed on from father to daughter.

"I saw my dad using the chainsaw. He made bowls and baskets," Casie said. "He showed me the techniques to hold the stumps between the feet and use the chainsaw to carve."

She was 16 then, and there has been no looking back since.

Her father, who is 76 this year, has been in the trade for 40 years.

"I wanted to be a painter," recalled the elder Nicely. "I could not find the brushes and the paint, so I turned to making things out of wood."

Their creations are not symmetrical or geometrically precise, but encapsulate the wildness and vastness of nature. And there begins the creative journey.

"We use a lot of driftwood, and most of it comes from the beach," Casie informed. "I am often at the beach, or if there is land being cleared away to build houses, or even when a road is being constructed."

The best time, she said, is during the hurricane season. "It is my favourite time of the year," she said coyly, adding that she is not happy with the destruction that this extreme weather phenomenon brings, but with the amount of debris and wood that's scattered around, it is like hitting a treasure trove.

Creative juices run in the family. Casie's elder brothers, Omar and Otis Nicely, join the process. While Omar sketches, Otis carves busts out of stone and does ceramics.

The only help Casie says she needs is for her brothers and father to move big pieces of wood. "I love to stay in a little corner and do my work," she said. "I do most of the work and then surprise them. My dad would sometime tell me what to do."

SELF-TAUGHT

The Nicelys are self-taught creative professionals, evolving and learning as they work. They say that since they work with natural material, with minimal intervention to alter the shape, it is the same nature that inspires them.

Like her father, Casie wanted to be a painter. She used to paint on dried woodskin, before the love of the chainsaw took over.

"I was always looked at by my friends and peers as someone who would be best suited to work in an office or even to become a model," Casie said.

She did get a chance to walk the runway when she was 17, Casie says, but she turned it down.

Age hasn't slowed Gilbert down. His hands are steady and firm as he continues to create. Casie, on the other hand, is flattening out, chiselling and creating her own runway and sustaining her father's legacy.

Their creative journey continues to get nature's abundant gifts and convert them to pieces of rustic art.

"I like to go to anywhere along the coast," Casie said. "As long as the vehicle can hold something, I will carry it."

Published April 28, 2013 - Sunday Gleaner