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Young displays a few of his carving pieces.

Part of Young’s painting ‘The General Store.’

Young displays a few of his carving pieces.

Tom Young was born in an apartment above a print shop in Minnesota where his father and grandfather ran a small newspaper.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with Young growing up to be a news man himself, being a partner at two papers — one in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin — eventually selling out the partnership and buying a paper in Michigan.

Young and his wife ran the newspaper in Michigan for 29 years. He handled the news and the photography, while she ran circulation and copyedited, eventually retiring from the industry in the early 2000s.

“We ran a pretty good newspaper,” said Young. “By the time we were ready to retire, the whole newspaper industry was kind of going to pot so I’m glad we had a good run.”

In 1995, Young took his first carving lesson with his longtime friend.

“I started out carving duck decoys, and the whole duck decoy thing was starting to get unpopular, people that grew up in the city couldn’t understand the idea,” said Young. “I moved to songbirds and some other stuff, and I’ve really enjoyed carving ever since.”

Later, Young became interested in watercolors and acrylics and began painting, learning from his father-in-law who was a painter. While he didn’t have a lot of time, he would dabble in painting on his vacations, as it was easier to tote painting supplies than carving supplies. He finds himself enjoying painting buildings and landscapes.

Part of Young’s painting ‘The General Store.’

When Young and his wife moved to Huntsville, he got involved with High Cotton Arts, where he has now been involved for three years.

Young hosts wood carving demonstrations at HCA, which are open to the public.

To anyone interested in taking up the art of wood carving, “buy some bandaids,” he laughed. “Then buy a good wood carving knife and a soft carving block of wood.”

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