The language of trees

By Chuck Herrmann

Abstract, Interpretive Wood Carver and Vermont Wood Historian

After coming to Vermont as a teacher at the Bristol Elementary School, Chuck Herrmann supplemented his income by opening Woodware on Route 7 South in Middlebury, where he sold wood products manufactured or crafted locally.  Soon Herrmann’s historian and artistic instincts led him to study the native woods of Vermont, the lives of the craftsmen, and the history of the wood industries in the Green Mountain State.

He left teaching and devoted all his efforts as owner of Woodware, a destination stop by tourists and a prime furniture venue for locals. Later he sold the store to his son Drew, freeing Chuck up to concentrate most of his energies on continuing his study of wood manufacturers and craftsmen in Vermont, on writing, and soon on carving his imaginative, abstract interpretations of wildfowl crafted from varied woods. 

Chuck’s carvings are a reflection of his deep commitment to the Vermont forest, its history and value. As an example, true to his investigative and collecting habits, he carved birds and waterfowl from remnants of a “root fence” that was once located on a farm field at New Haven Junction at the intersection of Routes 7 and 17.

He draws his inspiration from Henry David Thoreau whose December 1855 Journal described  the roots in a similar fence “as not merely interwoven, but grown together into solid frames, full of loopholes like Gothic windows of various sizes and all shapes, triangular and oval and harp-like, and the slenderer parts are dry and resonant like harp strings.”  But under Chuck’s steady hand and imagination, carved, abstract, floating wild fowl forms, rather than windows and musical instruments, have emerged from the root fence.

Chuck’s carvings provide an enriching artistic and educational experience.  In addition to the root fence carvings from pine, his offerings include carvings from walnut, sugar maple, cherry, spalted maple, and honeysuckle.