Joe Lucero
Wood Releasing by Joe Lucero
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.
