Noodling Carves Out Enjoyable Retirement for Carl Patrick
Retired PR director for New York Power Authority still busy with woodworking, traveling
By Stefan Yablonski
Carl Patrick’s retirement is tied up in knots — Celtic knots to be exact.
The former director of nuclear communications for the New York Power Authority took an early retirement at 53. That meant a longer retirement. But he didn’t feel ready to retire at the time, he recalled.
“I wish I’d known before I retired how many really interesting things there are to do, other than what I was doing for a living before I retired,” said Patrick.
The 78-year-old discovered myriad new opportunities, such as participating in Riverside Artisans, an art co-operative in Oswego.
Transplant
“I’m a transplant — from Western New York. I’m originally from Perry in Wyoming County. I grew up on a dairy farm outside of town — but I feel as though Oswego is my adopted home town,” he said. “My wife [Terry Quigley] is an Oswego native. We were married in 1980; so we’ve had 45 years of bliss this fall.
“I met her when I was working here in the 1970s. I was working at the FitzPatrick nuclear power plant, doing public relations for the Power Authority. I really developed an affinity for Oswego. I really felt at home here and marrying a local you get into the community a bit more.
“You get to know people in the community and I think it’s a really nice community. I came from a town of 5,000 and grew up on a farm so being in Oswego was like being in a big city to me. It’s very comfortable here in Oswego.”
Patrick came to Oswego in 1976 and stayed until 1982.
“We moved to Putnam Valley while I worked in the Power Authority’s headquarters office in White Plains.” He lived downstate for 30 years.
“When I was promoted we lived in the New York suburbs. It had its advantages, but was never as comfortable as Oswego,” he said. “I got involved with community things down there. We were near the city of Peekskill which had a lot in common with Oswego. It’s an older city, was an industrial center a hundred years or so ago. It was redeveloping at the time I was down there.
“It came time to retire and we said where do we want to go? We could go to France, Spain or Costa Rica, California or Florida,” he said. “We said, ‘let’s go to Oswego!’ Getting back to Oswego has been delightful after too many years in the suburbs of New York City.”
He said he was fortunate to have a good pension through the state — which has allowed him to do a lot of things — “have a lot of adventures, you know — like this. I’m still working,” he said referring to being a part of the cooperative that he joined in June 2014. In 2017 he was celebrated as Artist of the Month for June at the Riverside Artisans.
Many of his carvings use the patterns of Celtic knots. Some Celtic knots have a special symbolism, while others are simply beautiful patterns. All of them are endless paths, symbolizing eternity and the continuity of life, he explained.
“The Patricks in my family are English. The Irish side of my family is Baker. In fact, Baker High School in Baldwinsville is named after my uncle. He was at least half Irish,” he said. “He went to Oswego to go to college when it was a normal school. He didn’t complete it. They needed a teacher in Hannibal, so they sent him over to Hannibal to be a teacher. This would have been 100 years ago probably. He did well and somehow he ended up in Baldwinsville and worked his way up to principal and eventually superintendent. I don’t know if he ever completed get his degree!”
Tied up in knots
“It really kind of came together when we took a trip to Ireland with our kids when they were in high school. It was one of those things where we said if we are ever going to travel with the kids we should do it now. We had done some of the typical sight seeing things, but we said let’s do a real international trip. My wife is 100% Irish and I’ve got about a quarter,” he said. “We decided to take them to Ireland, teach them a little about their heritage. The trip to Ireland really peeked my interest. You see a lot of Celtic knots there.
“I had done some stuff and something struck me — a light went on over my head — that it would be a lot easier to carve Celtic knots in wood rather than in stone. All these Irish monuments are marble or they are granite. I said wood would be neat and it might look nice. So I started just trying it out see how it would work and I got better and better at it. I entered one in an art contest and it was well-received. So I joined up here. I said maybe I can actually sell some things.”
For carving, he mainly uses butternut and basswood. Occasionally, he’ll use cherry, walnut, cedar or ash.
“The rich wood brings life to the figures I carve, making it the ideal medium for my work. I use only a light finish, with little or no stain, so the beauty of the wood stands on its own. Each figure is unique, with a distinct personality and character,” he explained. “The act of creating a shape or design from a chunk of wood is very satisfying.”
In addition to Celtic knots, he’s created pieces using natural themes such as leaves, animals and the Oswego lighthouse. He’s also done Buddhist designs and New Zealand themes.
“We went there with Dr. [Michael] Nupuf several years ago and I got all sorts of ideas,” he said. “I’d love to do wood block cuts, some of the things that the Japanese do. Wood block cuts are really great — maybe in my next lifetime. I spend a lot of time whenever we travel, going to art shops and shows and ‘stealing’ ideas — getting inspiration, that’s the word for it.”
Noodling
“I started noodling with [woodworking] when I was young. A friend of my mother did some carving when she retired. I liked the things that she did. I always liked wood,” he said.
“My grandfather had remodeled [our farm] in, I think, 1905. They did all the woodwork from white oak that grew in the woods around there. They cut all the wood and let it season and I remember my father telling me there was a local carpenter who came in with all his milling equipment and set up in the front yard and milled all of the trim and woodwork for the house. I grew up in a farmhouse — but it had this gorgeous white oak woodwork throughout. I always appreciated that. My father liked wood and taught me about wood and how important and nice it is. So I had that background. And then I saw these carvings that my mother’s friend made and I said, ‘gee I could do that.’ I started just kind of whittling away at stuff. I’ve always been fascinated by the beautiful grains and rich textures of our native hardwoods and started carving wood many years ago. Over the years, I’ve found that the character of the wood I use gives a special feel to my carvings.”
Patrick started doing Celtic knots and gave them to family and friends. “There’s a substantial Irish community in Oswego, so they’ve sold well here over the years. It’s fun making them. I enjoy the creative aspect of it and working with wood,” he said. “I really enjoy working in the shop here. This is a really nice organization. I don’t think any of us like doing specific commissions because then you feel the pressure to make it perfect. If I create something that I want to and it has a little flaw in it then if someone wants to buy it they can buy it or if they don’t want to buy it they don’t have to. But if I am doing it specifically for you, I gotta make it right.
“At some point you can’t give them away to your friends and relatives anymore — they’re saturated. You can’t hang any more on your own wall. If you can sell some of them you can recover some of your costs so your spouse doesn’t pick on you too much about money you are spending on materials and equipment.”
The adventure continues
“To me, retirement has been an opportunity to do things that I never had time to do before. I don’t want to work real hard — its retirement. But I can do things that I never had a chance to do before, like this. It’s a hobby; working in the shop is a hobby. But I get to meet new people, get to see old friends. I get to be involved, involved in the community! I like being involved in stuff. I play trombone in a couple different bands. I’m not very good at it but I enjoy it a lot. It’s fun. So all of these things that look like jobs have been hobbies, adventures.”
Is there anything Patrick still wants to do?
“That’s a tough one,” he said with a grin. “There are a lot of things I would like to carve. I have a file on my computer of new ideas that is just huge — there isn’t enough wood in the world to carve all of the things I’d like to carve.
“My wife and I have been doing a lot of traveling. I really enjoy the traveling. We’ve got some friends who like to travel as well. There are a lot of fascinating places that I’d just love to travel to. We’d like to continue traveling. There are a lot of places we haven’t seen yet.”