Fred Cogelow: "... Good Dog ..." hand carved in Butternut wood

Good Dog - Butternut 71" h x 24" w x 8.25" deep .

This carving was inspired from a photograph the artist took in March1974 at the Nelson Brothers farm auction, of a fellow enjoying a barbecue sandwich on the sly. at the time of the carving the barbecue sandwich was carved as the more recognizable hot dog. The title "Good Dog" has a triple meaning, first the hotdog itself, second The german greeting "Guten Tag" referencing the eaters german heritage, and third the eaters own doggish demeanor.

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.