Evolving from Nature: Sculptor Tom Dean brings exotic wood to life

Big Sky Journal Arts 2009

Evolving from Nature: Sculptor Tom Dean brings exotic wood to life

“I want to become the best at my art,” says Thomas Milo Dean, of Milo Creek Carvings, as he peers over a ten foot by four and a half foot sculpture made of African Bubinga, Oregon Manzania, and Montana Juniper wood. Tipped at thirty degrees, the grand hand carved piece eventually will make a whole river environment with fifteen to twenty fish, frogs, cattails, and dragonflies.
The monumental project, Dean’s “signature piece,” in the works for over a year, will soon be permanently displayed at Big R Supply in Great Falls, Montana.
As CEO Wayne Wike relates, after seeing some of Dean’s work, “it is a great fit for what the fly fishing shop needed as part of our outdoor story.”
Dean aims to bring the outdoors in for a growing audience that appreciates the remarkable, real life beauty, of his carvings made from exotic woods.
Hovering intently over other designs in his Great Falls studio/garage, Dean takes pride and ownership in an emerging art career that has eclipsed his years of working in pharmaceutical sales and orthopedic appliances.
He launches his story of a passion that subliminally yearned within him for years.
When he quit working for Merck Pharmaceutical, “it was the scariest thing he had ever done.” No paycheck, a wife, and a family to support. Then, his sister from Seattle, sent him an old dremel tool. He got out a piece of pine and carved out a prototype of a paddle fish, and other small projects. But, he wasn’t making any money, so he went back to work 24/7 for Zimmer, an orthopedic product manufacturer.
When he had time, he kept carving.
A friend saw some of his fish carvings and encouraged him to enter a Christmas art show. She wanted twenty of them, but all he could make was one, which he sold for sixty dollars.
Told with riveting candor, he laughs: “I still have the three twenty dollar bills.”
That was the kicker. He thought “wow” if he could sell one, he could sell others.
The “wow” was in others eyes, like the “one that got away,” relates Jan Robitaille, who bought that first piece as a Christmas gift.
“There’s something remarkable about his work that immediately drew me in: the feel, the look, the beauty of it. Our son-in-law loved the piece and it is a treasure for our family to have. I just hope that one day I’ll own something of his.”
Soon, he was working in the garage for hours. Patti Jo would have to rescue him for dinner. He would be back carving at six in the morning.
He had a feeling in his soul, that he could be successful. He believed in himself, knew his genre, and had over one hundred ideas.
However, his personal vision was met with some paternal skepticism from his father, Dr. Bob Dean, a retired pediatric dentist, and, an artist who has worked in many media. Dean pursued despite his father’s doubt believing that “there is one thing in each and every one of us, a gift in life, and if it is presented at the right time, we can do it.”
For Dean, that time was now, forty-five years later.
“I knew that Dean was born with a special talent,” said art collector, Mike Goss, who prominently displays a Dean sculpture of a brown trout going after a dragonfly in the reeds, titled: “Last Call.”
“Through his younger years, he was fishing, hunting, enjoying other things. Now, he has taken his talent into his hands and is sculpting so we all can enjoy it. Until you share your talent, you don’t understand the impact you have on people. His talent is not something he picked up, but something he was born with,” attests Goss.
For the lanky, friendly, blue eyed Dean, there are discoveries to be made in life, often underscored by life’s experiences.
Today, Dean speaks in a long dialog about his work and the vivacity of his imagination.
He has been serious about his art since March 2007 when he sold some pieces in a dealer’s room at the C.M.Russell Art Auction.
Dean has no formal art training, rather, he likes to think that his art is continually evolving from his understanding the anatomy of his subjects.
He grew up in Great Falls, and learned to fly fish with a bamboo rod given to him by his grandfather, Milo. The family had a cabin on the Smith River, and as a young boy, Dean recalls his grandfather’s stories that drew him in about life and the outdoors. Milo Creek Carving is a tribute to that “wonderful, decent, honest man, who always had time for me,” he says.
Pulling out one of his first fish silhouettes, a flat sided swimmer, Dean brandishes the framework of his early efforts.
He explains that his work is subtractive art. He starts backwards. He makes the components like a puzzle, and then, puts them together.
Dean immerses himself in each original project. If he makes a fish, he first decides on the size, and the shape. Then, he finds a wood that is just right for the characterization. He hand draws the outline of the fish. He cuts the fish out from a big block of dense, strong, exotic wood: Tigerwood, African Mahagony,Koa, Bubinga, Jatoba, Zebrawood, Beruvian Rosewood. He likes to work with the natural beauty of the wood. No painting or fillers are applied.
His tool bar includes: a dremel, knife, band saw, aggressive bits, several sanders, including the Guinevere, an inflatable rubber sander. Indeed, Dean credits his silky smooth surfaces to the Guinevere, a tool invented by Arthur Aveling of King Arthur’s Tools. In return, Mr. Aveling lauds Dean’s exquisite wood carvings in his national advertising.
Aveling describes Dean as a “magnificent artist” who captures the beauty of fish. He is proud to have an artist of Dean’s caliber using their products. Dean’s fish carving,” Brown on the Smith River” sits proudly on Aveling’s desk in Tallahassee, Florida.
A fly fisherman for forty years, Dean draws the viewer into an underwater scene that may include water weeds, insects, and aquatic animals. He adds Montana juniper where appropriate, having collected the twisted wood from eastern Montana.
In his work, he tries to capture that one “moment in time,” capturing the “really big one.”
Kent Klewein of Reel Job Fishing in Georgia, casts numerous nods to Dean’s work. Klewein uses a picture of one of Dean’s carved fish in his blog that touts his guiding business.
Occasionally his clients want a replica mount of their fish, and “Dean is the only guy that does one of a kind pieces out of exotic wood,” said Klewein.
Dean acknowledges that there is a lot of versatility in his art.
This year, 2009, Dean was nominated for the Montana Circle of American Masters. An honor he humbly acknowledges. Because of the distinction, he has been encouraged to teach his wood carving art for the betterment of cultural history.
Ever evolving, Dean refers to his inner voice that says you’ve never reached your pinnacle.
Mention his inspiration, and he always comes back to his family.
“I really do this for Patti Jo and the kids, and I aim to be the best,” he concludes.