Fish Tales: Wooden Sculptures by Tom Schirm
When Tom Schirm tells a fish story, it’s not your usual Big One That Got Away tale.
Schirm, a habitat biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Columbia, Garfield, and Asotin counties, has spent 35 years of his professional career protecting fish and wildlife. For this reason, many of his fish stories have to do with poachers. Lately, however, an increasing number of his tales have to do with the more pleasant topic of woodcarving. Schirm uses his knowledge of fish, their habitat, and their unique markings, and turns this into sculpture.
Golden Trout, wooden fish sculpture by Walla Walla artist Tom Schirm.
It all started in the mid-1990s when Schirm was working as a game warden in Wyoming.
Fishing for a Hobby
“A girlfriend asked if there was anything I would like to do as a hobby besides hunt and fish. Since I chased poachers, and dealt with hunting and fishing in my job all the time, she thought some other hobby might be good.”
So . . . Schirm decided to carve fish. He started with a book, bought by the girlfriend, by Bob Berry, considered the father of the fish carving art form.
“I played around with it for many years, but started to get serious about improving and carving more compositions in 2008,” the Dayton artist says.
Using both hand and power tools, Schirm works with exotic sounding woods like tupelo, jelutong, or basswood. Prized for their softness for carving, they are also prone to splintering. This adds to the challenge and beauty of the final work, Schirm says.
Scraps Schirm converts into rocks and other habitat components. The finished markings – a detail to which Schirm pays assiduous attention – he hand paints and airbrushes in acrylic paint.
Depending upon the sculpture size, each lifesize fish takes anywhere from 60 to 200 intense, careful, concentrated hours. Working primarily on commission, Schirm has sold works to collectors throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as Wyoming and Iowa.
Rescuing a Prized Catch
“I remember one buyer who came to me with a damaged taxidermy mount of a big Smallmouth Bass his father had caught many years before,” Schirm says.
“Most of the fins were broken or missing, and his father had thrown it away.
“He took it from the garbage and asked if I could replicate it in wood, and do a composition including the lure his father had caught it with.
“It was about a 7-pound Smallmouth Bass. I broke two saw blades and nearly burned up my band saw cutting such a thick fish shape out of the block of wood.
“However, it turned out well, and his father was surprised and happy.”
White Sturgeon, wooden fish sculpture by Walla Walla artist Tom Schirm
Five years ago, Schirm tested the waters, so to speak, of woodcarving competitions, and the result has been one to please both fisherman and artist. At his very first competition, the Artistry in Wood Show in Kennewick, Schirm walked away with First Place in Class, Best of Division, and the People’s Choice Award.
Shortly thereafter he entered national shows. In 2017 at the World Fish Carving Championships, sponsored by the leading taxidermy journal, Breakthrough Magazine, he garnered first, second, and third place prizes. This spring at the same competition, Schirm’s Westslope Cutthroat Trout took the Open (Top Level) Decorative Lifesize, Third in the World Award.
The Westslope Cutthroat Trout wooden fish sculpture, winner of multiple national awards, by Tom Schirm
“One Special Fish”
The prizes for the Westslope Cutthroat Trout are especially meaningful because of another fish story in Schirm’s repertoire. Created for a colleague, the sculpture was meant for the colleague’s wife who had always wanted such an artwork, but unexpectedly passed away before it could be completed. Schirm borrowed the piece back for the 2018 and 2019 competitions.
“That’s one special fish,” the sculpture’s owner says.
Over the years, Schirm has carved 103 fish, and he is nowhere near being done – neither with the carving nor the entering of competitions. His next major goal is to win Judge’s Choice and Best of Show at a future World Fish Carving Championship.
But his constant goal, with each and every composition, is to re-create a snapshot in time of the fish within its natural environment.
“I want to show the beauty of nature and the complexity of creation,” Schirm says.
“My goal is to create the finest examples of fish sculptures I can.
“I enjoy it when someone thinks a composition is a real fish, or when a customer smiles with happiness when they receive their fish sculpture.”
Those are fish stories well worth telling.
Tom Schirm is the Featured Art Event from Monday, June 17, through Saturday, July 13 at Wenaha Gallery.
Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment.
