Dawg and his Art

Dawg's Art, a set on Flickr.

Bear hunting and mountain music are two of James Wood's favorite things. But, many evenings after the day's work is done, James a.k.a. “Dawg,” spends hours at another favorite pastime … drawing. Throughout the month of January, Dawg's art is on display at the Ashe County Public Library. His art can be described as graphic comic-style. It is educational, historical, and humorous, all in a hillbilly/rural setting. Each piece is a masterpiece of intricate detail. His technique involves a 4-step process for every pen and paint stroke in each sketch. This requires a lot of time. Some originals have taken as much as two months to complete. Every time you look at a Dawg drawing you will see something you didn’t notice the first time. If you look close enough you might find a little mouse with big eyes often hiding somewhere in the scene. Captions and words between characters, written in mountain dialect, are incorporated into these drawings and enhance the entertainment value of his work.

Appalachian heritage lives on in these drawings as well as in other folk-art crafts by Dawg. Along with drawing, Dawg is a wood carver and primitive woodworker. He enjoys carving bowls out of tree logs (downed by natural causes). After sawing logs to the desired length, they are hand-split and left to the profile of the split. This makes each bowl unique. He uses wood from poplar, buckeye, cucumber, and basswood trees to make his bowls. They are truly a work of beauty and smooth as glass when finished.

As mentioned Dawg is a bear hunter. He raises Plott bear/hog dogs, the state dog of North Carolina. When hunting season opens, he heads to the high mountains with his beloved hounds. I wondered about how James acquired the nickname Dawg … thinking it had something to do with his love for dogs. Turns out Dawg's roots are in Georgia, home of the Georgia Bulldogs. While in the Air Force he was given the call name Dawg, after Georgia State's mascot “Hairy Dawg,” and the name stuck! Personally I think it suits him and his personality quite well. Dawg makes everyone feel at home and seems like an old friend as soon as you meet him.

Although this post features a slide show for some of his art, on display at the library, I do encourage everyone to come in and experience Dawg's art up close. His latest piece is of a Phipps Store Friday Night Jam session. Phipps Store, located in Lansing, NC, is the place to be on Friday nights.

Dawg and his wife Rita, both fiddlers, open their family's old store for picking and grinning gatherings. Here musicians of all ages and skill levels come together playing a variety of instruments to make some darn good mountain music! Listeners can't sit still long and are certainly welcome to cut the rug!