BY HEATHER KILLEN

The Annapolis County Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Mae Workman has one more river to cross. Two years ago the Annapolis County folk artist decided to build a mini replica of Noah’s Ark, complete with Noah, his family and 130 varieties of animals, all coming two by two.

“It seemed like something I had to do; it really became important to me,” she says. “It’s something I can leave behind.”

She says her goal is to earn her spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, but the project seems to be fueled by her love for life as it is found in the many facets of nature.

Workman’s yard in Mt. Hanley has been carefully designed to attract almost as many varieties of birds as can be seen in the Valley.

She clears them a path to the feeder in the snowy months and bribes them shamelessly to visit during the summer.

She knows where two different families of baby birds are nesting in her shrubs and how to call a woodpecker from his hiding spot.

She searches for owls and plays heavy metal music to keep the moles out of her vegetable garden.

Range of her talent is obvious

Inside her home, the full range of her artistic talent is obvious in her oil paintings and the life-sized carvings of ducks and owls perched in all the cozy corners.

In recent years, Workman’s talent has begun to attract international attention and her carvings have found homes in Germany, Belgium and Australia. She sold a pair oxen to Myra Freeman, the former Lieutenant Governor.

In August, Workman will be one of the featured artists at the 20th annual Folk Art Festival in Lunenburg.

A self-taught artist, Workman says her late brother Wallace Banks got her hooked on carving about eight years ago. While he had a knack for building functional mechanical miniatures, he encouraged her to carve ox and horse teams.

Workman admits that creativity runs in the family, but artistic talent was usually directed into practical skills such as carpentry. She is now passing on what she has learned to her son.

Along the way, Workman says she made a few mistakes and has ended up with a few stitches. All in all, she enjoys the joy, wonder and possibilities that her work continues to offer.

She also enjoys seeing people’s reactions to her work and finds it interesting to see how different types of people are attracted to her various subjects.

She sells a lot of ducks to German buyers and a lot of owls in Newfoundland. People in Windsor seem attracted to nautical themes.

Imagination flew to other fancies

Her first miniature collection was a series of ladies. But her imagination soon flew to other fancies, including a band of musical bunnies and an assortment of Father Christmases.

While many artists avoid the challenge of carving such intricate pieces, Workman says she finds it easier to find the right perspective on a smaller scale.

Noah’s Ark is her most ambitious work to-date. With the help of her son and niece, she has painstakingly researched each animal and works from drawings.

She ensures that one-by-one, each of the varieties of leopards, the cheetahs and jaguars all show their rightful spots and that the zebra’s stripes are just so.

Her collection shows the natural wonders of cats and rats and elephants - and sure as you are born - she even has a pair of unicorns.

“They may have missed his boat, but they made mine,” she laughs. Two-by-two, the animals are shaped from a limb her nephew culled from a 50-year-old catalpa tree in Judge Kenneth Crowell’s yard in Middleton.

Last fall, Workman feared that she would have to abandon her legacy after she injured her thumb while still healing from corrective surgery for carpel tunnel syndrome.

Since then, she has found she must slow down a little and pace herself.

“I started carving them in twos, but now I have to do them one by one,” she adds. At 129 sets of twosies, she is now down to her last pair. She saved the chimpanzees for last. Now that she has built an Ark, there’s just one last pair to carve and the tableau will be complete.