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Faces of Wood
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by Diana Roberts
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| Walking through the Lakeview Mall in Burns Lake one day, I was surprised to see a picture of Charlotte, the receptionist at College of New Caledonia, with wooden characters she had carved.
Charlotte Tetreau grew up watching her grandfather, Mike Tetreau, whittling intricate and elaborate wood carvings. So it's not surprising that she would one day get into carving.
Charlotte attended the University College of the Cariboo, in Kamloops, for five years. She worked with pottery, drawing and painting. Up to this point, carving was not in the picture.
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Charlotte Tetreau, carver and artist
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| Charlotte, like many artists, has a keen eye for anything unusual and seems to collect some very strange things, many of which may come in handy for her next art project.
What other people see as junk, Charlotte sees as possible art. It really takes an artist's eye to see the potential in much of what she brings home.
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Carving wood that is so weather-worn that it looks like stone
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So how did Charlotte get into carving faces on knots of wood?
Well it seems she was camped at Augier Lake, 20 miles north of Burns Lake, her first summer back in town (1999), and decided to take a walk up to the lookout. She spotted some knots, in windfalls beside the road. These knots, she was told, are caused by Western Gallrust.
Though she didn't know what she would do with them, Charlotte just had to take some home with her. Her companions helped her haul them back to the campsite. For three months, these 'treasures' sat in her garage. Then, Santa gave Charlotte a Dremel (an electric carving tool) for Christmas. This was the beginning of her carving career.
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