Fred Cogelow: "...Failed Bachelorhood..." hand carved in Basswood

"...Failed Bachelorhood..." hand carved in Basswood 32.5" h x 11.25"w x 5" deep .

This Carving is a work by Fred Cogelow of Willmar Minnesota. The Basswood this carving is made out of was left by Bob Brenson in his passing. Bob was a farmer, a woodcarver, a historian and a caretaker of Clover Leaf Cemetery in Willmar Minnesota. The two carvers Fred and Bob knew each other during Bob's life and shared more than one warm conversation. The subject of the portrait is Frank Handeen, one of three brothers. The Handeens are a well known family in the Willmar area. Great Great Great Grandpa Handeen was an advocate for farmers rights during the great depression and his progeny continued to be farmers and political thinkers. Out of the three brothers only Fred married. Fred Handeen was married in his 30s and this piece reflects on his elder years as a married man. Id like to think that the warmth and gentleness in his face means that the marriage was a happy one.

About the Sculptor

A full-time woodcarver since 1978, Many of Cogelow's carvings are life-size and carved from a single block of butternut wood that he harvested. Self-taught, Fred Cogelow is considered to be the greatest portrait wood sculptor working in the United States, winning fourteen best of show awards at the International Woodcarvers Congress and other awards throughout the Midwest and across the country. His work is in private collections in Norway, Sweden, South Africa, and across the U.S and has been exhibited at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Perth Wood Show in Australia, the Minnesota State Historical Society, and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. Cogelow has designed carving tools introduced through Henry Taylor Tools in England.

His first memory of woodcarving was taking his father’s palm gouge to his mother's breadboard and finding the effort met with a distinct lack of appreciation. Shortly thereafter there was an assignment to carve a Scotty dog out of Ivory soap in third grade. Attempting to develop excessive detail with a dull table knife, one of the legs was broken. The teacher, responding to a polite inquiry as to the possibility of mending, confiscated both dog and implement, exclaiming, “It’s obvious you’ll never be a carver!”

Cogelow carves in a former farm building 15 feet from the house where he and his wife, Doris, live in Wilmar, MN. He grew up in that house, built by his great-grandfather in 1900. "I never went far in life," he likes to say, yet his sculptures are known by woodcarving enthusiasts across the country and internationally.