These sculptures are carved by Fred Cogelow from Willmar, Minnesota, U.S.



Fred Cogelow was born in 1949.

In 1971 B.A. Political Science, University of Chicago.

Full-time carver since 1978.

Fred Cogelow is completely self-taught reductive carver or as he puts it: “Self-taught in the discipline of esthetically dis-associating wood-fibbers.”

Fred Cogelow’s first contact with the sculpting, in his own words:

“My first endeavor in reductive sculpture was an assignment to carve a Scotty dog out of Ivory soap in third grade.

Attempting to develop excessive detail with a dull table knife, one of the legs was broken.

The teacher, responding to a polite inquiry as to the possibility of mending, confiscated both dog and implement, exclaiming, “It’s obvious you’ll never be a carver!”

Fred Cogelow has a great sense of humor, which is well seen in his works and in his explanations.

For example he sed about his sculpture “Taste the Soup of Madness” : “A delightfully lyrical ode to the phantasmorphic rutabaga.”

The BIO by Fred Cogelow (Not edited):

“Most folks are a good deal less interesting than the stories told about them, and it leads to considerable hesitancy to dispel the notions in circulation.”

Fred Cogelow aka Fredgelow Somebody (Everybody loves Somebody…sometime) one day hopes to be remembered as “the artist formerly known as ‘somebody’.

If you are interested seeing over 70 of his best pieces and reading about Fred’s development from a beginner woodworker to an accomplished artist of international fame,

you can purchase his book “Sculptor in Wood: The Collected Woodcarvings of Fred Cogelow”.

Categories: sculpture, wood sculpture, woodcarving

