By Christopher Nagy
Livingston Daily Press & Argus
BRIGHTON, Mich. (AP) - Walt Gursky might best be described as a catch-and-release fisherman.
Or, more appropriately, he's a carve-and-release angler.
His prized catches are proudly mounted and displayed on the wall of the basement workshop of his home. However, Gursky believes he can cast a wider net elsewhere, which is why he is scaling back, so to speak, on his collection, according to the Livingston Daily Press & Argus.
The 87-year-old Brighton resident is looking to donate his hand-carved wooden fish of Michigan waters - nearly 100 individual pieces in all - to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources use as educational tools.
"What good are they doing here collecting dust?" Gursky asked. "I've given as many away as people would accept. I thought maybe the DNR could put them to a useful educational purpose."
Over the past few weeks, Gursky has been in contact with representatives from the Waterloo State Recreation Area stretching between Jackson and Washtenaw counties near Chelsea about donating the fish he has painstakingly carved for years. The goal, he said, would be to have a number of items displayed at the recreation area's Eddy Discovery Center, with the balance of the carvings used as a traveling exhibit on Michigan fish for the DNR.
"This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time," he explained. "Carving is something that I just love to do, and this is a way that I can show it. With this, at least it's not going to end up in some storage bin or in a landfill."
Through the donation, his craftsmanship can live on in a legacy of teaching.
"That's what I'm hoping for," Gursky said. "That's the way I hope it turns out."
Woodworking and artistry in general are things that are in Gursky's lineage.
His family tree includes basket weavers and blacksmiths, and his father made wooden barrels for the Tokaj wine region in his home country of Slovakia. The family came to the United States when Gursky was a child, and his father took up work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania.
"It was the middle of Prohibition, so there was no need for barrel makers," Gursky said.
Yet Gursky picked up his father's woodworking skills, making whistles and toys for himself - skills he has since passed along to his four grown sons.
"It was just something I've always been interested in," he said. "I've been carving most of my life, but I started doing more serious stuff just before I retired."
He had made some decorative duck decoys in high school, but when he retired as an engineer from the Ford Motor Co. roughly 20 years ago, woodworking matured from being a hobby or pastime to becoming a "labor love."
"I guess I became very serious about it around that time. That's when we moved out to Brighton," he said. "There is quite an art community in Brighton."
He began to enter his pieces in local art competitions and through showcases hosted by the Brighton Art Guild at libraries, fairs and festivals. Gursky's pieces ranged from wooden kitchen utensils to intricate carvings of birds and fish made from pine, cherry, walnut, poplar, basswood and aspen.
Several of his past exhibits have had specific themes, from state birds of shores and marshes to the songbirds of Michigan. Each project, he said, takes several weeks to several months to complete, depending on the amount of detail.
He downplays his artistry in the craft, saying he simply derives satisfaction from the solitary skill.
"If I were doing this to sell and make a living out of it, I'd probably starve to death," he laughed. "It's just something that's therapeutic for me - that's what I would call it. It's like playing golf: I never mastered the game, but I enjoy it."
Yet, others might disagree.
Gursky's work is sold on consignment at Wildernest in downtown Brighton, and customers have taken notice, according to owner Joyce Schuelke.
"He's been selling his birds here for at least 10 years," she said. "We sell a lot of his large birds, like the great blue heron and sandhill crane, that are life-size as well as his smaller ones like songbirds."
Schuelke said that customers have placed special orders for a Gursky piece such as carved turkeys, owls, walking sticks and canes - and even Gursky noted that he has shipped his pieces to customers in California, Alaska, Louisiana and British Columbia.
"His work is realistic and reasonably priced. Plus, it's locally made, which is kind of a big thing nowadays," Schuelke said. "He does a very beautiful job."
Knowing others find joy in his work makes it all worthwhile for Gursky. It's not about the time he puts into it. It's not about the money he gets out of it.
It's about what other people experience from it, which is why donating the dozens of fish carvings to the state seemed so fitting, he said.
"Walt is the one who contacted us about donating some of his wood carvings," said Gary Jones, park manager of the Waterloo State Recreation Area. "It sounds like something that would really be a fantastic exhibit. The quantity and the size of the donation ... we're still trying to see if we have the space for it."
Katie McGlashen, park interpreter at the recreation area, said work is underway to determine what will ultimately become of Gursky's pieces.
"We potentially have some places that might work for a display or we might move them around (as a traveling exhibit)," she said.
However, there is still some paperwork to be completed and administrative red tape to be cut through before the donation can be accepted, McGlashen added.
Yet Gursky, for one, is in no rush. In time, it will all go.
"I plan to give everything away eventually," he said, noting that he has donated a number of his bird pieces to the Howell Conference and nature Center in the past to sell as a benefit for the Marion Township facility.
"I'll be taking my great-grandkids to the Howell nature center, and we'll be taking along a whole bunch more of those birds that have been collecting dust here," Gursky said. "They don't know it yet, but they're due for another load.
"They didn't refuse it last time," he added with a laugh.
A few sentimental pieces will remain in the family, however, such as the large heron he carved for his wife from a piece of his wife's grandfather's walnut tree.
But the rest can go and serve a better purpose, he said.
Even if the fish come down from the wall and the birds are eventually unstrung from the ceiling of his workshop, Gursky will still be able to find future inspiration in the bustling wooded area off his back porch.
In fact, the donation to the DNR might just be a rejuvenation for Gursky, something to keep him going. After all, once all of his current carvings are cleared out, he will have something he hasn't had in a long time: a fresh canvas.
"Now I'll have a chance to patch all the nail holes and repaint," he said with a laugh.
Published: Wed, Jul 15, 2015
