I got invited to Spring Island, SC to teach a carving class. I had visited the year before, and there was no question that this was something that I should do, because it is a very special place. My father, Papa, had taught a class there 3 years prior and the Spring Island Trust wanted to do something similar. So they invited me, and I was lucky enough to score my father a place as my "assistant."
I was not really intimidated in teaching a class. While I don't have a degree in teaching, I have been a tour guide for 7 years on an off, managed to teach a few words of engrish to some Korean kids over the course of a year, so I am pretty comfortable in an informal teaching role. Also, I have been carving decoys for a quarter century. But of course I still have plenty to learn, one thing that I was reminded of is that there is nothing like teaching someone else something to force you to get a better understanding of the subject matter.
I decided to make ruddy ducks, it is a manageable size, easy to paint, and with the fat cheeks and round bill, it is already something like a caricature of a duck, so a little artistic license creates a cute duck rather than an odd duck. It is also pretty easy to paint. I started making a few prototypes in the fall to get warmed up and develop a design. I ended up knocking off a design of my father's, yes I admit it, but there is no covering that up its pretty obvious and its one of the best ruddy designs. Other carvers, if you are reading this, no, this does not give you license, sorry I'm family, copy a Dudley.
So I cut out a mess of bodies and head and roughed out a few as demos for the class. This was all pretty easy, what wasn't so easy was that I had agreed to give a talk. I took a public speaking class a the College of Charleston and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I often reminisce back to my college days and remember all of the great times I had, the wonderful history professors, photography teacher, geology classes, crew team, keg parties, etc. I had a very enjoyable time where I learned quite a bit over my four years. Just recently went back to the history floor of Maybank Hall in Charleston and had a nice visit with my old advisor, and had a warm nostalgic feeling for my days as an undergrad as I roamed the halls. Well, in engaging myself in a research project into the history of the American duck decoy with the ultimate goal of creating a coherent speech that would last 20 or so minutes certainly put crack in the rose colored glasses with which I was viewing my undergrad years. Somehow I had forgotten about the looming dread of procrastination, and the difficulty of research for hours on end for someone who only now reads for pleasure (still mostly nonfiction, but I am not creating thesis statements, rather, discussing someone else's well thought out thesis over glasses of wine.) Being a history student, I wanted to create and understand my thesis wholeheartedly, not simply read copied notes. Ok, so I didn't create a revisionist history of American decoys, pretty much all of it has been said before. And I am critic, especially of bad speeches, we all know how painful watching someone fumble through a thousand "umms" in a poorly prepared speech.
Back to the class, we got it Saturday after a pretty easy drive down 95. Bill and Shanna Sullivan were our wonderful hosts. Bill has been collecting Mark McNair decoys for several decades, and he and Shanna just started collecting some of my work this year. They have a speactacular house on a point surrounded by gardens, palmettos and live oak trees and beyond that miles of marsh and tidal waterways. And they love good food and nice wine. This is where we were going to spend the week. There certainly perks to my lifestyle.
Class started on Monday morning in the art barn. I had 5 students, and we course we had two teachers, so it was a very nice balance. I carve by myself most of the time, and often don't watch anyone else carve. I had taught one friend how to carve some hunting decoys, and he picked it up pretty quickly. Well perhaps, it was over the course of a couple of months and I was viewing the past with my rose colored glasses again, forgetting the few miscues along the way. What it comes down to is that what has become second nature to me, is obviously not second nature to someone who has never done it before, or hasn't done it very much. This is completely understandable, I had just failed to realize this completely in my preparation. Everyone was amazed at how quickly I could remove most of the wood, and I was equally amazed at how slowly one could remove the wood. But this was ok, slower is better, since carving is a reductive process and once the wood is gone, you can't exactly put it back. We carved the head the first day, and the body the second.
Wednesday, this was our day off. Bill, our fantastic host had booked us a fishing charter. It was the one day during the week when it wasn't windy or rainy. We definitely lucked out with the weather and the fish and had a great guide. We ended up catching about 8 red drum and losing a couple more. Most were in the 27-33" range, big healthy fish, we also had one little guy that was about 18". The slot size in SC only allowed us to keep the one little one, of course a bit disappointing, but I'd rather the fish be released, if the slot was not there, those fish might not have been there for us to catch. I finished out the day working on my speech and slideshow.
Thursday was a big day. My students had all made great progress in learning how to use their tools, and we had attached the heads to the bodies by lunchtime. It was very satisfying to see some of the students who were really intimidated by the tools on the first day getting comfortable with them, and all of the students had something like a giddy excitement that you get when you learn a new skill or sharpen a skill you had, and in turn create something new and unique that not even they were quite sure they were capable of. So often in our lives we become proficient and skilled in a certain field, and don't have the time or patience that we once had to start something new from scratch. It is very challenging, and I think that most of us simply shy away from it. Teaching the class was a great lesson to me of the value of learning. Speaking of learning, I had a speech to give. It went really well, I had about 70 people turn out and the talk was well recieved. I think that I managed not to say "um" (personal pet peeve) while I probably talked too fast (common mistake). It was a relief to be done with it and very satisfying to have a group of people interested and receptive to what I had to say. And of course I learned some things about decoys along the way, and that college was a lot of fun, but it is also fun to not have to write term papers anymore.
On Friday we finished with the spokeshaves and rasps and brought out the sandpaper. My assistant gave a quick tutorial and painted his ruddy duck in about 15 minutes while stopping to talk and teach, and make it look old, even I was impressed by the speed. I handed out the painting equipment and most people were done by lunch. We rigged the decoys and put a nice patina on them in the afternoon. The class went til 4:00 and at 3:59 we had all of the decoys lined up for a photo! Amazing. I was quite impressed by how much everyone had accomplished, how different all of the birds looked, and how happy and proud everyone was with what they had done.