Woodcarver caters to business executives

LONGMONT – David Monhollen was making a comfortable living as a sales representative for pharmaceuticals, then a metal manufacturer when he was offered a big promotion that would require him to move his family from their Kentucky home.

Instead, Monhollen chose to leave the corporate world to try his hand at starting a wood-carving business that has now been going for 28 years.

“Woodcarving is my passion, ever since I was nine years old in the Cub Scouts and someone showed me how to make those neckerchief slides,´ said Monhollen, who recently moved to Longmont.

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During his stint in Vietnam, he was called “The Carver,” due to the birds he always crafted for the Vietnamese children. He was miserable where he was and had faith woodcarving was his calling.

“We just really didn’t want to move, so I was very supportive,” his wife, Carol, said of his decision.

“We lost some dear friends who thought I lost my mind – and I did. But I found my heart,” Monhollen said.

They had enough savings to make a go of it for two years. Within a year, he was earning something comparable to his salesman salary. But it took him a few months to find the right formula.

He started selling little pieces to gift shops.

“I knew if I kept that up I’d destroy my hands like I would if I worked at a factory, so I said hey, stick with what you know,” he said.

He’s always subscribed to the business journals and read about the CEOs he used to deal with, and decided he should do something for them. So he called them and made the same pitch he uses today: “I’m a master woodcarver, but I specialize in creating focal point pieces for lobbies, boardrooms and personal offices that symbolically help them tell their story,” he said.

Now his pieces range anything from a few thousand into the six figures, depending on the size and complexity. His carvings include doors wall murals, mantels, crosses, desks and just about anything else one can think of.

“I offer a service – for that passion to be able to survive I had to figure out how could I market these. Showing at galleries is not my shtick,” he said. “I love sitting down with the CEO of a company and discuss their business – what their focus is.” Through the conversation, images start popping in his head. When he sees that look in the client’s eyes, he sets up an appointment to show them some sketches in a couple of weeks.

He’s always loved nature. His cars are hybrids, and he let his lawn die to be replaced by desert landscaping because, as he puts it, “God waters my lawn.”

He uses scrap wood so a tree is never chopped down on his account, such as linden, walnut and cherry destined for the wood chipper, and wants to start using the pine destroyed by the beetle infestation.

Once the pieces are carved, they are sanded then finished either with acrylic paint or a stain, such as Tru-Oil Gun Stock finish for hardwood.

He recently moved to Longmont to be closer to his grandchildren, who live in Boulder, and has just started making cold calls to build up a local customer base.

The secret to making a living doing what you love? One, be married to a fabulous helper. Two, have faith you’re here for some reason other than just to make money. And three, just believing in what you’re doing in your heart.

His wife does all the computer work, drafting press releases. “I don’t carve, and I don’t paint,” she said, but helps out with just about everything else. They’ve had their ups and downs, but always had food on the table and were able to travel and meet some fascinating people. “It was the right decision.”

“I’m not a designer of corporate logos,” Monhollen said, and the CEOs usually have something in mind, whether they know it or not. It’s usually a matter of bouncing ideas back and forth until he finds it. His carvings can range from stylized to detailed, realistic carvings of eagles to show strength, power and soaring. Or they can be abstract, polished pieces of the root wood, which has a very nebulous, cloud-like grain pattern.

It took him 10 years cultivating a relationship with a Japanese manufacturer of high-tech machine tools, showing them his craft, before he finally got to pitch the board. The company had a Kentucky office that called itself the “Other” Kentucky Derby, and he made them a sculpture of three horses locked in a race, each made of a different wood.

The company was so impressed it decided to feature him and his work in its brochures, which they felt exemplified the detail, care and craftsmanship they brought to their own high-precision pieces.