Eddie Harrow was drawn to the outside from a really early age.
DEDHAM, Maine — We by no means know when the seed for an inventive ardour will likely be planted.
Eddie Harrow grew up in an condominium home in New York Metropolis, but it surely was nature that merely stole his coronary heart. His skilled life took him on a path to drugs; he was a pulmonologist within the Bangor space for 40 years. In retirement, nature has as soon as once more taken middle stage. His fascination? The sweetness and attract of wooden.
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We visited Eddie’s workshop to see the place the magic occurs. He recalled that it was time spent away from town that started to vary the course of his life.
Every little thing in regards to the outside spoke to him, and he will get a bit wistful when he remembers.
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“As a teenager, I went to sleepover camp,” Eddie stated. “And that was my actual publicity to bushes and climbing and woods and forest. And I actually – I actually, actually, actually preferred that.”
As a youthful man, he had dabbled in furniture-making when he wasn’t tending to sufferers. About 25 years in the past, on a visit to Vancouver, one thing else caught his eye.
“We noticed a number of the Native American totems and a number of the extra trendy stuff they did,” he stated. “And I used to be simply overwhelmed. How spectacular, how dynamic, how thrilling they have been. And I stated, ‘I wanna attempt.’”
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He discovered a ebook on Northwest Native American carving and tried his hand at it.
“I picked the best picture of one thing that they had accomplished. So I figured, ‘Effectively, it’s primitive stuff. It shouldn’t be too exhausting.’ Effectively, in fact, I used to be utterly off base. Completely improper,” he stated with fun. “With that, I started to grasp how inventive and actually great they have been.”
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The problem of detailed woodworking didn’t deter him. He stored carving – faces, flowers, absolutely anything that caught his eye. Over time, his carving acquired extra detailed. He works in basswood, the softest of the hardwoods.
“In the event you go in one of many nice cathedrals and also you see the photographs of the saints, otherwise you’ll see in a chapel, , a trinity scene or one thing like that … that’s basswood,” he stated with a little bit of reverence.
He begins by gluing panels of wooden collectively to create his canvas. The bigger the design, the extra panels he wants. Even piecing the wooden collectively requires precision.
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For Eddie, working with wooden is like engaged on a considerably fluid canvas.
“Wooden by no means is static; it is all the time transferring. It tends to bend – and generally warp and twist and break and cut up because it ages,” he stated from expertise.
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All of that’s taken under consideration as he plans each bit. Eddie transfers the picture he plans to work with onto the wooden by merely tracing it over carbon paper. He sketches the daring define of the picture and fills within the element as he carves.
He begins by utilizing a router to scoop out the assorted ranges, carving the finer element by hand.
It appears as soon as Eddie Harrow began carving, he simply didn’t cease.
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“It’s kind of like aspects on a diamond – when the sunshine hits it, it bounces,” he stated. “And when it bounces, it provides you this actual sense of depth and dynamism.”
A mean piece – one thing that may grasp on the wall in his residence – would possibly take 50 to 80 hours of labor. Bigger commissions, just like the picture of a log drive that hangs within the Penobscot County courthouse in Bangor, would possibly take as a lot as three or 4 hundred hours. A piece that hangs within the Northern Gentle Jap Maine Medical Middle cafeteria depicting adjustments which have occurred in Bangor is roughly seventeen ft lengthy and took a couple of thousand hours.
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“I received’t do one other one like that!” Eddie stated with fun.
However he probably received’t cease carving any time quickly. As a result of the concepts simply hold coming. He recalled a visit he took to Tunisia, the place he noticed a mosaic and was impressed to create the picture in wooden.
“It was only a combination of historical past, extraordinary creativity. We don’t even know who the artist was, and he was in a position to do it with little items of stone,” Eddie recalled. “And even with that, you might get a way of magnificence, grace … and motion. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.”
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That work presently hangs in his lounge.
Again within the store, he’s chipping away at a self-portrait.
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“I joke. If Rembrandt can do sixty self-portraits, I assume I can do one,” he stated, holding the unfinished work.
However his best inspiration – and deepest gratitude – comes from the excellent fortune that life led him to Maine.
“I’m within the woods. And I like being within the woods. I simply love strolling within the woods. Seeing the solar come down, by the leaves, snowboarding, cross nation snowboarding within the woods,” he stated. “Working with wooden is nearly like a sensuous expertise. And so to have the ability to take stuff … take one thing from it, after which create one thing could be very, very rewarding. It’s very fulfilling. And I like doing it. And – it’s a chunk of me that’s hopefully going to be round … once I’m within the woods.”
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If you need to see extra of Eddie’s work, you’ll be able to go to his web site by clicking right here.
Erik Stevenson was fouled making a 3-pointer and completed the four-point play with 3.5 seconds left to lift the Capital City Go-Go to a 96-93 win over the Maine Celtics on Sunday at the Portland Expo.
Stevenson finished with 36 points for Capital City. Ruben Nembhard Jr. added 13 points. 14 rebounds and seven assists, while Michael Foster Jr. had 14 points.
Ron Harper Jr. had 21 points and six rebounds for the Celtics. JD Davison added 11 points and 10 assists, while Baylor Scheierman finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Drew Peterson scored 18 for Maine.
This story was originally published in December 2022.
Jerry Galusha and his best friend, Doug Cooke, share a friendship that dates back to 1984, when they were living in Rangeley and were introduced by mutual friends.
Over the years, they have often gone fishing or deer hunting, activities they both have enjoyed immensely.
“The relationship that we have is just unbelievable,” Galusha said. “We’ve had some really amazing adventures.”
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This fall, Galusha was confronted with a heart-wrenching task. He would take Cooke into the woods, one last time, in search of a big buck.
The difference was that this time they would not be walking the tote roads and trails together. Instead, Galusha would be carrying Cooke’s cremains in his backpack.
Cooke died on Sept. 5 at age 61 after a long struggle with renal failure. Galusha said after 40 years of dialysis or living with a transplanted kidney, Cooke opted to cease treatment and enter hospice care when his third transplant failed.
Doctors had originally told Cooke he would be lucky to celebrate his 30th birthday. Thus, he tried all his life to avoid getting too emotionally attached to people. He seldom asked anyone for favors.
Cooke and Galusha hadn’t seen each other much in recent years as Galusha focused on raising a family. But in late August, Cooke left a voicemail for Galusha explaining that he planned to enter hospice care.
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Cooke told Galusha he didn’t need to do anything, but wanted him to know. He did not want to become a burden to anyone else.
“His body was telling him that he’s had enough,” Galusha said. “He couldn’t golf. He couldn’t play his guitar. He hadn’t been hunting in years.”
The late Doug Cooke of Rangeley is shown with a buck he shot many years ago. Cooke’s best friend, Jerry Galusha, is honoring Cooke’s last wishes by taking his ashes on hunting and fishing excursions. Credit: Courtesy of Jerry Galusha
Galusha couldn’t let it end like that. In spite of Cooke’s reluctance to have his old friend see him in such poor health, he went to visit him.
But as Cooke faced his own mortality, he asked one favor of Galusha.
“He said, ‘Promise me one thing, could you please, just one time, take me in to Upper Dam to go fishing before you dump my ashes?’” Galusha said.
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The dam separates Mooselookmeguntic (Cupsuptic) Lake and Richardson Lake north of Rangeley. It was a favorite spot of theirs, one Cooke introduced to Galusha, who grew up in New York.
“He really loved the wilderness and Rangeley,” Galusha said of Cooke, who was a Vermont native.
Galusha immediately said yes but, knowing how much Cooke also enjoyed hunting, he didn’t feel as though the fishing trip was enough to adequately honor his friend.
“I said, I’m going to take you for the whole deer season, every time I go,” Galusha said. “He looked at me and started crying and said, ‘That would be so awesome.’
“It was hard. We cried and hugged each other,” he said.
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When Galusha went deer hunting near his home in Rangeley during the third week of November — a week the two buddies often spent together over the years — he tried his best to make it like old times.
Galusha spared no effort. He carried the cardboard urn containing Cooke’s cremains inside a camouflage can, which was wrapped with a photo showing Cooke posing with a nice buck he had harvested many years earlier.
He also packed Cooke’s blaze orange hat and vest, along with his grunt tube, compass, doe bleat can, deer scents and a set of rattling antlers.
Galusha chronicled the events of each hunting day by posting to Cooke’s Facebook page, complete with observations, recollections and photos.
Lots of deer were seen and there was one encounter with a buck, but after missing initially, Galusha refused to take a bad shot as the deer was partially obscured by undergrowth.
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“I just did what Doug would have done. He’s not going to shoot and I wasn’t going to shoot,” Galusha said.
He spoke reverently about Cooke’s resilience through the years in the face of his constant battle with health problems, which included not only kidney failure, dialysis and transplants, but four hip replacements and, eventually, a heart attack.
Jerry Galusha carried the cremains of his best friend, Doug Cooke, along with several items of Cooke’s hunting gear, on hunts this fall. Credit: Courtesy of Jerry Galusha
The arrival of muzzleloader season provided one more week to hunt. On Friday, Dec. 2, Galusha walked more than 3 miles along a gated road to an area where he had seen deer a week earlier.
That got him off the beaten track, away from other potential hunters, something Cooke would have appreciated.
“He wasn’t afraid to go do stuff,” Galusha said. “It might take us a little bit longer, but he didn’t care.”
Galusha, who still often refers to Cooke in the present tense, said he vocalized some of his reflections while in the woods. He saw eagles, which he thought might be Cooke keeping an eye on him.
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“I talked to him a lot,” Galusha said, who also enjoyed telling the handful of hunters he encountered that he was not out alone, rather with his friend.
He then explained the story of his promise to Cooke and reverently removed the urn from his pack to show them.
When Galusha finally saw the buck, it wasn’t quite close enough. He uses one of Cooke’s favorite tactics to coax the deer closer.
Galusha tried the grunt tube, and then the doe bleat can, but the deer didn’t seem to hear it. Then, he blew harder on the grunt tube and finally got the buck’s attention.
“I irked one right in, that’s what Doug would say,” said Galusha, recalling Cooke’s affection for using the alternating calls.
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The spikehorn turned and walked directly at Galusha, who shot it.
“I cried,” he said of the moment, recalling that Cooke had been there when he shot his first antlered deer, also a spikehorn.
During the long drag back to his truck, Galusha had plenty of time to think about how much Cooke would have enjoyed the hunt — and watching him make the drag.
At one point, a crew of loggers had approached.
“I was pointing to the sky saying, ‘We got it done,’ shaking my hand,” Galusha said. “A guy came up behind me and said, ‘You all set?’ and I’m like, yup.”
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Cooke and Galusha had lived together for 10 years at one point, but they also had gone long periods without talking with each other. Even so, whenever they were reunited it was as if they had never been apart.
The last few visits were difficult. Cooke’s health was failing, but Galusha just wanted to be there for his buddy.
“It was emotional,” said Galusha, who was present when Cooke died. “I held his hand to his last breath.”
Next spring, hopefully when the fish are biting and the bugs aren’t, Galusha will grant Cooke — who he described as a fabulous fisherman — his final wish by taking him fishing at Upper Dam, just like they used to do.
“I’m thinking maybe around his birthday [July 19]. It might be sooner, depending on how buggy it is,” said Galusha, who expects to make more than one excursion with Cooke.
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Galusha said he will know when it’s time to say goodbye.
“I really don’t want to let him go, but I promised him I would, so I will,” he said.
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