Twists and turns Man carves new life for himself with artistry,

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- He didn't ask for a saws-all or a chisel for his third birthday, and he wasn't a child prodigy at the age of 12. In fact, he was kicked out of art class in high school and didn't make his first carousel horse until he was 34.

Bruce A. White's passion for carving wood and casting silicone into carousel animals is not innate, but developed through a series of inadvertent twists and lucid turns.

"I should have been an engineer, I'm not an artist," he said. "My children are naturals; they pull ideas out of their heads. I don't have a natural talent for it, I'm a builder."

But don't let his humility fool you. White is a famous, talented artist -- a headman, or a master carver who sculpted animals' heads in the early days of carousels.

Appearing in documentary

He's been featured in dozens of newspapers, television and radio shows, and in February, he will appear in a PBS documentary about carousel carving.

The prestigious auction company Guernsey's recently appraised White's "Wild Thing" carousel at $450,000.

The "Wild Thing" took hundreds of kids for a spin at St. Joseph's East Hills Shopping Center from 1999 through 2001.

When East Hills didn't renew its contract with White, he donated "Wild Thing" to the Patee House Museum.

The museum is building a $250,000, 44-foot-wide, 28-foot-tall carousel house for the merry-go-round. The goal is to have the carousel up and running when the museum reopens daily in April.

But his real claims to fame are his signature carousel horses displayed in thousands of Applebee's restaurants around the globe.

"Bruce is a tremendous artist," said Paul Kinsley, White's longtime friend and a resident of Montevideo, Minn. "The things that he can do with wood -- he brings things to life -- it's unbelievable."

This was never White's aspiration, though. He started out wanting to be a veterinarian. He has an almost perverse curiosity with the way things work. He hoards dozens of biology, anatomy, botany and archaeology books and unlike most of us, he actually reads them, absorbs them.

"I like to read about anything that has to do with nature," he said. "Before I carve an animal I'll go to the zoo and watch them for hours to understand how they move, what they like, what their habits are. I don't do it because I feel that I have to, because of my art -- I just love nature and science."

White didn't start thinking about carving until he went to a fair in North Carolina where he watched a man carving an owl for hours. That day, White says, he was truly moved.

"I never got involved until I was 27," he said. "I taught myself how to draw by tracing other people's work."

Couldn't make ends meet

Later, while stationed in Japan, he was hired as an apprentice to carve plaques for servicemen when they were transferred or discharged. He also carved a dragon in the round and won Best of Show at a Japanese art show.

After he was released from the Navy, he entered art shows and won many, but he wasn't able to make ends meet for his wife and children.

"For years I struggled," he said. "I have a chest full of ribbons, but that doesn't mean you're making any money."

His carousel-carving career began to take shape when, at 34, he was commissioned by a private collector to carve a carousel horse. That horse attracted attention and led him to his first job as a prototype model maker for Wonder Toys Co.

He went into business for himself, opening a carousel-carving factory in Kinsley, Kan., where he soon became the town's main tourist attraction.

"I'm a card-carrying lunatic," he said. "I'm manic-depressive, border-line obsessive-compulsive and dyslexic -- you can't do what I do unless you're a little compulsive."