Man of Many Talents

Arts | December 28th, 2015

Inside the studio part two: Ron Koskela

By M. Koskela

Ron Koskela is a Vietnam Army Veteran, a North Dakota native and resides on a farm in rural Minnesota with his wife. He is a bearded, quiet man who has a variety of skills. Not only is he a woodworker that produces wood turnings and carvings but a carpenter, mechanic, photographer, visual artist and welder; Ron’s talent is not confined to one area.

His studio may appear cluttered to some; with vices, drill presses and wood chips surrounding his chair, but when you walk in you are instantly filled with a warm, ‘home’ feeling as you look around. His walls are organized with various carving tools, wood planes, cabinets and buckets of diamond willow branches that he carefully and skillfully carves by hand. His imagination can be seen in the characters that he creates, each with their own personality and charms. His characters range from long faced bearded Santa figurines, to realistic relief carvings and large faced tree gnomes that also double as a cabinet door, the nose being the knob. When he talks about and shows you the tree gnome cabinet door, he chuckles and smiles as he thinks about it. Ron’s work has also included intricate work on gun stocks and knife hilts.

While he creates he likes to listen to old radio programs and audio stories. When you walk into his studio, you are transported to a different time and place where television was unheard of; when people got up at sunrise and went to sleep at sundown. In the summer, his door is open and looks out onto a private deck in his back yard that also hosts a rack that he hangs his canes up to dry after he has treated the wood. In the winter, the studio is heated with a portable heater that keeps his space warm enough for him to work. When he is not in his studio, he can be found out in the yard, building, fixing or working on a vehicle. Currently he is building a forging shed that he can mix metals to make blades and other objects.

Ron has won many awards with his photography at local county fairs and has also taken old photographic slides and turned them into digital files for the county museum. He has done freelance photography for weddings and has done a lot of wildlife photography. When the weather allows, he and his wife, and fellow artist Adele Koskela, drive around until they find a place to park. Adele creates plein air paintings onsite and he walks around and takes photographs while taking in the views. They often go to Itasca State Park and Grand Marais, MN.

While painting is not his main focus, he has created many acrylic paintings over the years that have included works that make you feel like you are looking out of a brick window onto a scene. His colors are typically bold and contrasting, sometimes playful with a spiritual angle. He has created outdoor signs for local businesses and churches and has entered some of his work at the Hawley Art Show and the Spirit Room’s “Crow Show” in previous years.

If you are interested in his work, you can see him at local events and vendor shows that he attends with his wife or you can call him to talk about the diamond willow canes or a different project you have in mind. Whatever the case may be, he is a man of little words but a man of many talents.

Website: www.mkoskelastudios.com/the-karving-koskelas.html

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thekarvingkoskelas

Inside the studio part two: Ron Koskela

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