Doré Skidmore - Master Carver

After receiving her Bachelors degree in Art History from Vassar College, Doré further enriched her artistic education while she and her husband lived overseas. Doré was drawn to the monumental stone and wood sculptures found in the museums and cathedrals of Europe’s most famous cities.

She has studied woodcarving through the California Carvers Guild and stone carving under Constantine Serferlis, master carver of the Washington National Cathedral. Although she has explored different media, Doré continues to focus on the medium of wooden bas relief and makes occasional forays into stone sculpture. One of her sculptures, a cherub carved from a 350 pound block of Indiana limestone, sits atop a large quartz rock in the prayer garden of St. Mark Catholic Church in Vienna, Virginia.

As the featured artist for Street Scene galleries, Doré's interest in the distinctive architectural styles found in New Orleans are reflected in her bas relief woodcarvings. After thoroughly researching the site, Doré sketches the scene to enable her to create the final drawing back at her studio. After drawing the scene onto a piece of bass wood, she uses her tiny chisels to carve the wood until a beautiful piece of art emerges.

Doré's recent awards include Honors at the Treasury of Arts Show in Vienna: in 2000 and 2003 for bas relief woodcarvings, and in 2002 for a small Cararra marble stone sculpture. Her work has been featured in several publications including the February 2002 issue of Northern Virginia’s élan magazine. Today her works are collected internationally.

Sylvia K Yike

Sylvia K Yike worked all of her life with her hands and color. She is self-taught. Sylvia K had over 20 years experience in art reproduction and finishing techniques when she decided to develop Woodgraph ~ Sculptured Prints. Sylvia K, in national competition, won 12 awards for her painting techniques including faux marbe and gold leafing.

In 1982 Sylvia K, quite by chance, saw an exhibitiom of Kay Glenn’s New Orleans woodcarvings. Drawing on her years of experience in painting and art reproduction Sylvia K and the Yike Family undertook the challenge of developing Woodgraph ~ Sculptured Prints.

While Bob and John developed the reproduction process, Sylvia K researched the colors used historically in the Vieux Carré so she could match the colors, bringing authenticy to each scene. Next she developed the brush strokes needed to enhanced and not cover the delicate details of the prints.

With all this done, Sylvia K turned to finding framing profiles that would show off the prints. It turned into quite a challenge when she realized that most of the framing profiles were made for a paper print and it would not accommodate the depth of our prints. About half of our current profiles are Street Scene exclusives.

Kay Glenn

Kay Glenn discovered Momoyamabori, a beautiful Japenese relief wood carving while living in Kobe, Japan. For seven years she studied under the reknowned Kohagi-San. In 1974 she earned the degree of Master Carver along with her teaching certificate. At that time Kohagi-San gave Kay a very old Japanese fuque (a Japanese signature). Kay signs all of her work with her Fuque and her first name, Kay.

Upon Kay’s return to New Orleans she continued teaching and carving in the Momoyamabori tradition. Sometime near her 60th birthday she began to carve small “heritage scenes” from her childhood memories of New Orleans to give as gifts to her children. We share some of those works with you in our Woodgraph ~ Sculptured Prints.