Doug Dorken - Folk Artist
Douglas Dorken, a resident of Chester, NS, is a folk artist. Like many art lovers today, however, even he doesn't know how to define his artistic genre. He just loves to carve and to give people who purchase his work a "good feeling." There is something about his work that tickles people. When they stop and look, they invariably laugh out loud, he says. The carvings are funny, exactly as he intends them to be; he wants people to laugh at human foibles. In almost every instance, just beneath the rugged painted surface of a Dorken funny folk carving lies a message. It's rarely subtle.
The subject matter of Dorken's work is taken almost exclusively from Maritime life, from fishermen and coastal scenes. He loves toying with the ironic or the comical improbable. Most of the figures found in Dorken's works are based on real people. No one provided a finer real-life model for his craft than barrel-chested David Jollymore of New Harbour, with whom Dorken had fished for a time. Dorken also lobstered with Eddie Boutilier, out of Aspotogan, and even tried a spell at fish farming, but the allure of carving in the warmth of a basement workshop soon won out over the cold, hard work of fishing.
Dorken's carvings are all done from one piece of wood. The images are carved into the wood, not affixed to it. Many other folk carvers glue the noses and other appendages on to their carvings. Not Dorken. This is a matter of pride and gives his work a special character; it also makes it more difficult to do. But Dorken is accustomed to difficult tasks.
SOLD J Slocum and Sons Wall Plaque 9in x 20in x 2.5in
Tara Lyn Wall Plaque 10in x 21in x 2.5in $330
Bring Home the Bacon 15.5in x 4in x 8in $425
TRI-catch 12in x 6.5in 13in $355
Delectable 12in x 10.5in x 11in. $385
Lobster Sunrise 14in x 21.5in $350
SOLD Cat with Fish on Buoy
SOLD Colourful Fish
Biography
Doug Dorken joined the army at the age of 18. His love of the sea led him to switch to the navy, where he served until 1994, retiring with the rank of warrant officer. After taking a turn in real estate for a few months, Dorken took up wood carving, a hobby his father, a retired shipwright, had pursued for many years. But the son wanted to have fun as well. Dorken set out to use his naturally wry sense of humour in his work. He began by carving faces of fishermen he had known into used or abandoned lobster buoys. "I like to use real sea-seasoned wood whenever I can," he relates. "And when I get a lobster buoy from the Bay of Fundy, for example, I sit on my carving stool and study it. I turn it over and over, studying each side and I try to picture fishermen I know. And then I begin to carve."
Dorken prefers to carve kiln-dried pine. He gets most of it from Lester Collicutt's lumber yard in Chester, using thick pieces of wood not usually available at building supply outlets. But he also scrounges wood from a variety of sources: he revels in finding useable lumber, especially beams from old dismantled barns. Sometimes he buys old logs and has them sawn and dried. The older the wood, the better, he says, because there is little likelihood that it will split after it is carved. To avoid, or at least reduce, the chance of a piece developing a substantial crack after it is carved, Dorken also scores the back of the wood and makes sure it has been drying on racks in his basement workshop for a long time. Dorken especially likes to use old lobster traps and buoys for his carvings. "This way," he says, "when people buy my stuff, they are actually buying a little bit of Maritime history."
As with all forms of art, formulating the idea is the most difficult step in the process. Once he fixes on a subject for a carving, Dorken sketches the images in pencil on the piece and proceeds to "rescue them" from the wood. He uses a variety of tools, some electric, but mostly chisels which he keeps razor sharp, and a mallet to transform the pencil sketch into a figure or set of figures. "I actually like to think that I am liberating a guy hidden in the wood," he once said with a mischievous smile. He frequently finds himself laughing as the image of the person he is caricaturing begins to emerge from the grains of the wood. And he can hardly wait to show the finished product to the people he has so mercilessly "teased out of the wood." "It's my way of getting back at a lot of people," he says with a grin. Many of his friends, including those of us with whom he plays gentlemen's hockey three days a week, tremble that they will one day see themselves carved into a piece of art at the local pub or in the window of a folk art shop. But such is the price of friendship with Doug Dorken the carver. As one of his hockey buddies said recently, "If Dorken doesn't carve you up on the ice he will find a way to do it in wood." One of the unique characteristics of Dorken's carvings is the fact that the figures often appear to move, or have life. His carvings exhibit a unique blend of movement and form. He makes no pretense about being anatomically precise; his characters are drawn from real life and, like real life, the figures are roughly shaped. As for precisely defining folk art itself, Dorken is circumspect. "Hey," he says, "I'm retired and I enjoy putting fun into wood." Come to think of it, that's not a bad definition of his folk carvings: "Putting the fun in Folk."
Frederick Vaughan is a retired professor living in Sou'west Cove. He plays "gentlemen's hockey" with Dorken in Chester and has the scars to prove it.