"I've been clean and sober for almost six years now, but I was a heroin addict for 30 years and spent 19 years in prison. I was always interested in woodworking, so while I was in prison, I started working on pieces to pass the time. I was a teacher's aide in the computer lab, and my best friend was a teacher's aide in the shop, so he would bring me quarter-inch thick scraps of wood. One day near Christmas there was a small picture in the newspaper of a painting by Thomas Kinkade called the Christmas Express. It took me 4 months, working 11 or 12 hours a day with toenail clippers, a broken utility knife, sandpaper, and glue as my tools, but I made a copy of that train. I used a magnifier to help me see the details better, and I colored it with magic markers because I didn't have any paint. Another friend worked in the upholstery shop, so he got me scraps of material, and I upholstered the seats in the passenger car. The pieces of coal in the coal car are actually rocks from the prison yard that I colored black.
"Woodworking is what I do now. Tables, chairs, bedroom suites, jewelry, hope chests, whatever people request. It's just word of mouth."
"Woodworking is what I do now. Tables, chairs, bedroom suites, jewelry, hope chests, whatever people request. It's just word of mouth."
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