Finding his way back to a dream

It was eight years ago that Anthony Sharp went for his "future ride."

As he tells it, he was between jobs and it was time for a little reflection on where he'd been and where he was going. And he just happened to be in his car at the time.

As he drove, his mind shifted into neutral and "memories from my childhood started coming back."

He saw himself drawing and sculpting creatures with clay.

He saw his father and grandfather as they spent their spare time whittling wood figures.

He recalled the hunting trips in the woods that he went on with his mother, with cedar roots the quarry to be set out as decorations in the yard.

And Sharp had one clear, sustaining vision that day. He saw himself, and his family, as artists.

Subsequent to that revelation, day jobs have come and gone for Sharp. He's been with Carolina since 2000, hired as a temporary employee in grounds, transferring as a temp to University Mail Services, and after a very short period of time, hired as a permanent employee there.

He now delivers mail for Facilities Services. He likes the work, the benefits, the job security.

But beginning the day after he took his future ride, make no mistake about it, he's been a working artist, too.

"I went home from that ride," he said, "and started thinking about it, and the next day I picked up a piece of cedar." And a box cutter. And that is how he began again.

Looking back
As a child growing up in the Rogers Road area in Chapel Hill -- "it was the country then" -- art "was a big part of my life," said Sharp. But gradually a love of competitive athletics took over, and his hobbies took a backseat. "I'd kind of forgot about it," he said. "In the process of life you get away from what you really want to do."

He had a couple of missed opportunities to attend college as an athlete -- including Carolina -- and after high school he began the process of making a living. One of his jobs was as a stonemason, and he loved the creativity required to construct walls, paths and ponds. But "winter time was rough" and he moved on.

All of his experiences, though, have served as inspiration for his art.

From those treks with his mother spent hunting for the perfect root, he took as his medium found cedar. "I don't cut trees. I like to find trees that have fallen down," he said. He doesn't put it exactly in these terms, but he values cedar, too, for its archival quality. "At home I have pieces that I leave out in the weather," he said, "to see how long they'll last." One of his warrior totems has as its base a cedar root that he and his mother found when he was 15. He's 43 now.

He applies stain to the cedar, then rubs it off to get the effect he wants. Once details are painted, he applies coat after coat of shellac or polyurethane to give the work a high shine. "I wanted a statue -- but made like it's glass" -- is how he describes his finishing technique. "Shellacked, cedar gives off amazing skin tones," he said.

Sports figures are a recurring subject of his sculptures, especially basketball players. And especially that Carolina player Number 23. "I like sports so I like doing athletes."

He likes music so he crafts a lot of "club scene guys."

Images of men at work make up a recurring theme, stone masons among them.

And perhaps taking a child's love of playing soldier and combining it with a strong military tradition in his family, especially on his mother's side, he whittles scenes of military men.

Artistic vision
But what does the work look like?

For starters, it's highly distinctive, highly stylized folk art. A comparison of his second piece, a four-foot sculpture of Michael Jordan, to his recent work finds marked similarity in form. The process is a little different now -- more refined-- but it's apparent that he has a clear vision for his art. And he admits that he worked hard on developing his technique and style.

Still, in spite of sets of woodcarving tools that he owns, his main tool is still a box cutter with snap-off blades -- that and a handsaw, a drill and a chisel.

Comparisons can be made to the gaunt figures of early 20th century painter and sculptor Amadeo Modigliani, who was known for his elongated distortions of the human form. But Modigliani was influenced by primitive sculpture from Africa, and that may be an influence for Sharp as well.

The large Michael Jordan looks similar to a smaller version that was purchased for display in Facilities' Horney Building, but Sharp has developed his craftsmanship between the times that the two were carved. Each has hinged shoulder joints, but the large version moves using imbedded nails, and his new work is all joined with "pegging," as Sharp calls it. He doesn't like glue.

He does what he can to let the wood determine the work. Rather than remove a stick protruding from one of the early Jordan's feet, he left it in. One hand is carved more realistically; "one hand is more like the wood." One hip has a knot; the lower lip also has a knot. "Art is balance," he said. "I don't like changing the wood a whole lot."

Rather than buying craft store doll eyes as he did for early pieces, Sharp now uses bits of quartz that he finds and paints in details.

Whimsy is another trademark of Sharp's work. He has one unusual piece, about 30 inches high, that he calls a "safe." It consists of a "club scene head," complete with black, wrap-around shades. The top of the head sports a tiny checkerboard with carved-out indentations in each square for players' pegged game pieces.

He left a short, chunky branch in place and turned that into a cigar. But the real surprise in the piece comes when Sharp reaches over to the sunglasses and deftly pulls out three invisible doors that he's hidden there, exposing tiny caches for valuables.

Sharp has sold some work, and given some away, but at this point, he has amassed more than 300 pieces at home. "I was real shy with my work at first," he said. "It was all in my home, and my house looked like a museum."

Looking forward
Thanks to two different grants, one from the Public School Foundation and one from the Anne Barnes Cultural Arts Enrichment Grant, Sharp has now shared his work and spent time with students in art and social studies classes at Grey Culbreth Middle School over the period of one year.

"This is a talent I've been given," he said, "and I want to use art to do things for young people." He told the students: "In the process of life you get away from what you really want to do."

Tommy Brickhouse, University Mail Services manager, is Sharp's boss and also a fan. "Anthony is one of the most well-liked employees in University Mail Services, both among his peers and his customers," he said. "The thing I admire about him is the time he takes to mentor kids in the middle schools. In addition to his wonderful, unique artwork, Anthony is a very dependable employee and an asset to this University."

Now that Sharp has developed his technique and has a body of work, he's looking to the future. First and foremost, he said, "I want my art to be a legacy for me when I'm gone."

The first step toward that goal has been to buy a computer. Next he wants to develop a web site "to show my work," and he's hoping to find "someone to guide me." Next stop: to exhibit his work in New York. "It's a big dream, but I think I can get there," he said.

In the short term, he's getting low on wood and said, "I can always use cedar."

Got any fallen trees to donate for the sake of art?