BILL KENNEDY (osw™)

Where are you from?
I was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland in 1947. The one true, original and historic birthplace of decoy carving and carvers in America.

When did you start carving?
1957. My first bird was a small swan. My Mother kept it and sent it to me about 20 years ago. After I made the swan my Dad asked me to try my hand at making a few canvasback heads for some always present headless bodies. When he saw the results, he said, "Well if you can make a head you can make the whole decoy." Once I was underway, my Father had me begin working to annually repair and re-paint the gunning rig of the Edgewood Arsenal Gun Club - about 4000 birds - mostly Gibson's and Mitchell's but a few odds and ends worked their way in every year. He also dropped me at Mr. Gibson's shop in Havre de Grace from time to time to assist and learn...never saw so much sawdust in my life. The first real birds I made for our own rig were two full sized swans chopped with a hatchet - pretty rough by today's standards but good enough to hunt over. After a bit I crossed the Susquehanna and got hooked on the hand chopping and shaving horse world that existed in Charlestown. I still incorporate much of what I learned there in many birds today and many of my decoys are made just as I leaned way back then. Same tools, old time techniques.

Why did you start?
I just loved decoys, their form, and was at age ten already very much into oil painting. It wasn't all clear sailing though...got into big trouble when I beat the tar out of a kid I caught with an airbrush...and another thing...we needed the birds to gun over - big water, big rigs.

Favorite specie to carve?
I like black mallards, ruddy ducks, red breasted mergansers and Canada geese. When you come right down to it though, I like most any bird that's done well. I really don't think that Canada geese should have been named after Canada now that I'm thinking about it - they should really be called "Eastern Shore Geese", because that is clearly where they prefer to be.

Favorite specie to hunt?
Well, back in the day on the Bay it was canvasbacks and redheads - anything else was incidental. Now we gun mostly for prairie scooters and roadrunners in the 900 million acres of brown grassland and cactus west of Dallas.

If you compete, what level (Novice, Intermediate, Open, etc.) and Category?
Open. I have just started to enter a show or two again after taking a few decades off from the show circuit.

Most memorable win?
Yankees 23, Red Sucks 2. Buckner is my favorite player from Boston of all time, my hero.

Favorite Show?
I used to go to the Ward Foundation show routinely way back when, but the only show I've been to in a long time was the Havre de Grace show last May. I did stop into the Ward show two years ago, but I stayed only for about 15 minutes as I was so disappointed with the direction some of the carving, judging and rules had taken. That visit to the Ward show was my first pit stop at a decoy show in about 25 years.

BONUS QUESTION: What caused you to become interested in carving shows in the last year?
The emergence of the CA divisions.

Most influence on your carving style?
I absorbed a great deal from some of the gents in Charlestown that I worked with from time to time. As a matter of fact, that's where my shaving horse design comes from - right from Charlestown. I handled so many birds from Maryland and Virginia as a kid that it's hard to say what I picked up, but I always liked the very best of James T. Holly's work, especially his snakey headed black mallards, and I've been told many times that some of my heads and bodies reflect a good deal of Holly's style. From the contemporary side of the house regarding fundamentals and philosophy, Joe Wooster.

Favorite medium? (Type of wood and paint)
White cedar and oils - any other combination is on the "least desirable" list of alternatives.

What are you working on now? Future plans?
Of late I have been working on some blacks, a few prairie scooters, several desert eiders and a couple of wood ducks. Just got in a stack of wood to turn into birds for Easton and I'm drawing up some new patterns and tweaking some old ones to get underway for that trip. Finding the time to do quality work lately has been difficult since I took RD Wilson under my wing as an apprentice. I haven't let him work on any actual decoys as yet, but I am finding it very useful to have someone around to clean up the shop, and he tells some of the finest lies I have ever heard. If all goes well, and if his attitude improves just a bit, I'm gonna let him use a knife in a week or so. It has been slow going - when he saw me using a spokeshave, he asked me where it plugged in or if it was cordless. This will be a work in progress - converting power carvers to hand tool use is an onerous task, but somebody has to do it.

Favorite style of carving ( Decorative, antique, gunners, IWCA, shorebird)
Carving antique style birds, no doubt. Few rules, creativity abounds and zero broken wingtips. These are birds I can and do hand to children. You have no worries about handling, specificity of feather patterns, groups, perfect coloration, anatomy issues and the like. What you do have is the freedom to be expressive, creative and you can create some genuine folk art...if I had to do decorative birds I'd just as soon take up knitting.

If you could add three birds to your collection, what specie and from whom?
Jim Holly Geese (a few exist), Taylor Boyd Canvasbacks (Charlestown), and a Dudley Ruddy.

Most difficult part of carving in your mind?
I have trouble making myself paint sometimes. I get so much enjoyment out of carving that I sometimes will stack up 20 to 30 birds before I'll get started painting.

What, or who, inspires you?
I get a lot out of looking through listings of old birds going to auction. On occasion I'll see something that really givers me an idea to do a new twist on...and another thing...truth of the matter is that RD and I get along famously and the exchange of design concepts and techniques has been very healthy for both of us. I have known hundreds of carvers and wannabe carvers, and amongst that crowd there haven't been many folks who are genuinely creative...and artistic...he is both. Someone else comes to mind - at 80 years old, a gent in Charlestown, Maryland - with one wooden leg and crippled hands - who took the time and energy to show a young whippersnapper all he could about chopping and shaping decoys by hand...for hours on end...gotta tell ya, that was inspiring. Every time he picked up his hatchet I knew I was watching history, in living color.

Name 5-10 essentials for carving
Charcoal pencil, shaving horse, hatchet, drawknife, spokeshave, and knives by Dick Anderson (paid endorsement), and my newest toy, a pneumatic drum sander. But let me add this, I cut the power cord off of that sander and turn it by hand...really...just ask RD.