LEXINGTON — With a chisel in his hand and folk music playing in his garage, Tim Gorka chips away at a wedge-shaped wood scrap to make a unique and festive gift.
The woodcarver started carving trees from wood scraps with his children in 1989. Ages 5 and 3 at the time, Gorka said they were probably “too young” for such a project, but he was able to guide their hands around the block to help them create the artwork.
“I worked at home and they insisted they wanted to learn woodcarving,” he said. “They lost interest in carving, but loved selling the trees, especially to friends who couldn’t say no to a cute child.”
Gorka still has his kids’ first trees. He started displaying and selling his trees around Richland County about 20 years ago. An Ontario native, he moved back home with his wife Jane in 2000 after living in South Carolina for 17 years.
“While we were away, the Carousel shop moved into Mansfield,” he said. “There really aren’t a lot of woodcarving jobs, so it was serendipity I guess.”
Gorka spent about 11 years with Mansfield Carousel Works before retiring, but he said he had collected enough scraps to last him years of carving Christmas trees.
“With a carousel figure, you’ll usually have to cut wedges off where the legs or head are, and you can’t really do much with those scraps,” he said, “but you can make these whimsical trees.”
Gorka creates 250+ trees in 2023
The carver said he doesn’t create the trees hoping to make money, but that it helps pay for Christmas gifts.
“I don’t really treat it like a business besides keeping track of everything for taxes,” he said. “They usually pay for Christmas, beer and gas money.
“I carved 150 last year, and this year I went a little crazy and wanted to see how many I could do.”
As of Dec. 23, Gorka said he carved tree number 252 for the year.
“I’m already scheming on a Valentine’s Day project,” he said. “I also carve a few spooky black trees around Halloween.”
The artist colors some of the trees white or green, but he said natural wood trees have become more popular orders lately.
“I do mostly basswood, also known as linden wood,” he said. “I’m carving blocks from a spalted Buckeye tree currently.
“This tree has been sitting in my shop for 20-some years and has some coloration from fungus, which is now inert since it’s been dried for so long. People have gone crazy over those this year because Ohioans love anything Buckeye.”
Gorka said many of his regular customers collect his trees or give them away as gifts. He numbers the trees on the bottom with the date they were carved.
“These silly trees have created some really great friendships,” he said. “Some people who purchased a tree have ended up becoming very close friends.
“I’ve had fun with it too, because each tree is different.”
Gorka started his business in wooden trout carving
The 69-year-old artist said his first paying art gig was at the age of 8 or 9.
“That was for my oldest brother Ron,” he said. “He had brought these notecards home and said he would give me a nickel for each painting he liked.”
Gorka said he has primarily made his living in architecture and sculpture work, though he has also created multiple colored pencil drawings and art in other media.
The carver said he was known for trout carving and fly fishing boxes early in his career.
“That sort of happened by accident,” he said. “We were in Montana for about a year, and I saw these beautiful trout and started carving them.
“Someone from a gallery said they’d buy all of them, and then I sort of got known for doing fish.”
Though he’s slowed down on commission work, Gorka said specialty furniture has been his passion project.
“I’m really into my weird little furniture pieces,” he said. “Just trying to see how far I can take it decoratively with it still being more or less functional.”
Gorka is actively involved in the Mansfield Art Center and regularly has his trees at their Holiday Fair each year.
He posts art pieces on Facebook and Instagram @timothygorka.
