This Totem pole was "made to order" for my brother just last year (2000). Glenn carved the Bird, Cat, Wolf, Bear, and Turtle (on the bottom) from a catalpa tree and my brother Rik painted it all.

There's a bit of a discussion about just what kind of bird is at the top. I'm told that "every totem pole has a bird at the top - so this one does, too". I think it looks like an owl. Glenn says that every totem pole is topped by a "Thunderbird" - so that must be what it is. The other choices on the pole were family-generated: The cat was requested by Sandy, Rik's wife. The Bear is for Gloria, Rik's mother-in-law. The wolf is for Sheila, Rik's daughter-in-law. And, in my words, at the bottom, slowly, but reliably holding it all up and keeping it moving, is the Turtle - which was Rik's choice.

Meet "Bobbie Fisher"; "Bob" for short. Glenn created this full-size Great Blue Heron at my request. It was quite a new challenge for Glenn. Bob's legs are made of steel as is a skeleton inside the wood - all the way up thru his neck. His neck is a series of wooden "donuts" which were threaded onto the steel inner skeleton "neck" - to give the whole thing good strength. Glenn had to carefully shape each "donut" to exactly "mate" with the others and give the overall desired curve. Bob's feet are welded to an old railroad tie-down bracket (we think) to give him a sturdy base. Bob's name comes from the fact that Heron's "Bob" as they "Fish". He generally watches our dining room table, but we gave him a turn by the swimming pool out back for these photos.

Notice the detail in his feathers and the blue-grey of his neck coloring. Glenn considered adding real feathers for the traditional "plume" from the back of the head, but decided that was too delicate to survive.

There is a tile porpoise inlaid in the bottom of the swimming pool. Maybe it and Bob are warily watching each other.

Perhaps Glenn's most important piece created "on request" - was my mother's wedding ring. Since carving is so much a part of his life, my mother asked him to carve her wedding ring. It was a difficult task to find wood which would support such a request without ever getting "cross-grained", but Glenn found a burl in a tree which filled the need. The "design" in the wood is the natural coloring and grain.

It isn't really fair to include the mouse here since it wasn't intended to be a masterpiece, but Glenn created this little guy on request from my daughter, Heather. She figured that she'd have a different-kind of "mouse" sitting on her computer.

The "real" whiskers are a special touch that Glenn figured out.