(He's made carvings for the likes of Bill Clinton and the Emperor of Japan).
But since 2008, when Mr. Brookes started making carvings on planks of curly maple as Christmas gifts for his family, his skill with a gouge and a small paintbrush has drawn attention in artistic circles as well as intellectual ones.
It is possible that the practice of abandoning elaborate and painstakingly made carvings after ritual use as in New Ireland and among the Asmat of Papua, Indonesia was inspired by such beliefs.
Soon Kate, who "could whittle before she could walk," is making carvings that inspire awe and fear among the townsfolk, many of whom regard her as "halfway to a witch".
They painted, sculpted and made carvings.
During the workshop, a sculptor will teach how to make fish carvings, using wooden templates.
This tale begins a few weeks ago when CMT rolled out a new reality show, "Chainsaw Gang," about the somewhat gonzo fellows at Deadwood Tree Sculptures near Malibu, Calif., who use chain saws to make elaborate carvings.
Like today's lawyers' bars and doctors' associations, they typically held legal monopolies over crafts in particular cities; one guild's members might forbid non-members to make stone carvings, while another would control the market on locksmithing.
You walk through a tunnel beneath the road on to the path that takes you around the stones at a variable distance - sometimes close enough to make out carvings, at other times so far away the monument is a silhouette.
