It's all about me.
By day Philip E. Carroll is a mild mannered orthotist at Hanger Prosthetic and Orthotics in Modesto, CA. But by night, or before work, or on weekends, or any other time he can get a knife and a piece of wood, he is angelcarver@noperfectangels.com (You can contact him there.)
Working primarily with children, but also adults, he designs and fabricates custom orthopedic appliances, also known as braces. (No, not for the teeth.) He enjoys his work because it always allows him to work with his hands, creating things, and helping poeple to live happier and fuller lives.
Growing up in Sacramento he developed interests in back packing, camping, music and ceramics. He often says that he never really went to high school, only band and ceramics. He also says that he took ceramics in high school for five years.
He relates his first carving attemp. "I was at scout camp when I was about thirteen. I took the wood carving merit badge. They could see right away that I was like every other boy scout that had come through the craft shack, and that my scout knife was a sharp as a well used butter knife. They sent me to the shower to find a bar of soap and told me to carve something out of it. I wondered to myself, "What about wood?" But obediently carved a yellow bar of safeguard into what I called, "Ewe and Lamb". I admit that it was abstract, but I had taken my time and had tried to do a good job. I showed it to my merit badge councilor, who was not much older than I, and was told, "That is the worst carving I have ever seen." As he threw the carving into the trash my hopes of becoming a great sculptor were washed away."
Mr. Carroll rambled on at this point about lessons learned, vision of youth, the 'Pointed stick carving method' that he claims to have developed, and his eventual love for scouting and reemergence into the wood carving arena. All of which were too tedious for me to listen to. If I can spruce them up in anyway, I will post them here in the future.
Notice: This web page was last updated on 11/14/01
