A Modern Day Renaissance Man and his Mosaics

By Jane Singleton

The definition of intarsia reads: “An art or technique of decorating a surface with inlaid patterns, especially of wood mosaic.” This thirteenth century art form has its roots in the Middle Eastern inlays of ivory on wood, and was made popular during the Italian Renaissance. It is neither a new art, nor one widely practiced today, so its artists are unique, and in the case of this month’s artist, a giant sequoia of talent. With his lifelong interest in the artistry of wood as training, Guy Chick turned his medical retirement from the construction industry into a resounding and satisfying success.

When Guy discovered the pleasure, pride, and new friendships that being an intarsia artist provided he never looked back. “I said to myself, Guy, you can no longer do what you used to do, so let’s try this. I did, and people just started falling in love with it and wanted more and more. So I did more and more.”

While still in the early stages of his intarsia career, Guy stopped by a Ukiah, California, business. He was carrying a briefcase—one he’d made from scratch, an original inlayed with a beautiful intarsia Husky on the lid in wood tones of grays, whites, and tans with touches of black.

The unique briefcase caught the business owner’s eye and he said to Guy, “Let me see what you have there,” and bought the briefcase right out of Guy’s hands—literally! Since then, they have been flying out of his hands as fast as he can make them. Guy told us, “I’ve made briefcases en masse for the Oakland Raiders with their logo, for service clubs, and for individuals. I can create any design you want. Just send a photo to me. I use nice leather inside, walnut outside, and a good-looking handle.”

Guy continued, “People tell me I’ve done it all. I’ve built shopping centers, worked in sawmills and delivery services, in construction, retired twice, and, in the meantime, my wife and I raised seven children. And I’ve enjoyed every ounce of it! I pretty much keep a smile from ear-to-ear.” It is this rare mix of humility and pride that helps this month’s artist embrace his growing success.

“And these days, when anyone asks about intarsia, I get my briefcase out and have it open in no time at all.” Guy freely admits that he basks in the frequent “atta-boys” that are connected with his intarsia creations.

 “I’ve done intarsia designs depicting everything from Iwo Jima survivors to the machine guns they shot, World War II airplanes that were behind enemy lines, boats, restaurants—you name it, I’ve done it.” But judging from photographs of Guy’s past work, the family dog is the most frequently requested design. And Guy is like the rest of us—he’s crazy about dogs.

“I’ve always had dogs. And I’ve just fallen in love with every one of them—that’s how it is with me. I had two Labs in my younger days. One of them my father brought to me when I first moved to Ukiah about twenty-five years ago. I used to hunt a lot and my Lab always went with me. They are great hunting dogs.”

Now Guy has a Great Dane, a three-year-old black-coated female named Colonel. “Colonel is with me almost everywhere I go. She is a loving dog. People are drawn to her and she just loves it.  The man who does printing for me came out to my car to visit with Colonel one day and said to me, ‘This intarsia that you do, would you create a piece for me of my dogs?’ Of course I said yes. We took it from there and in the process, became friends. That happens all the time!”  

An eagle with a seven-foot wingspan was Guy’s first intarsia piece and it sold well. The eagle took three or four days to complete. “I’m very proficient in my work and it takes me a lot less time than other people. Every move counts with me.” Guy must work from a wheelchair and therefore thrives in the highly organized environment of his woodworking shop.

Guy’s shop holds shelves of all different colors and grain patterns of wood. He picks out the colors of wood that provide the shading and highlights a particular design needs; the wood grains that provide texture or smoothness; and the sizes that work with the blueprint using the photo supplied by the customer as a guide.

He then cuts the pieces of wood in shapes called for in the blueprint, making sure they all fit together. Guy lowers the pieces or raises them, based on the pattern—the head a little higher than the body, the ears back from or lower than the head, and so on throughout the design. Next he polishes and rounds off each piece, making sure all pieces still fit together. Guy said he ends up handling each piece of wood twelve to fourteen times before all pieces are joined in the completed design. Guy is able to finish two designs a week depending on the complexity and has done roughly 600-700 projects in total.

 All of Guy’s work is done in the natural colors of the wood. He doesn’t use stains to create shading or highlights and that makes his work unique. “Anybody can make a picture and stain it with a whole bunch of colors. But it’s a challenge to design using natural wood tones and grain patterns only.”

“I put three coats of a low sheen lacquer on my designs, low sheen so you can see the color of the wood and the grain. High gloss lacquer interferes with the natural beauty of the wood. I place the completed design on a base and then in a frame, if that’s what the customer wants, or it may be a free-standing or a hanging piece.”

“The wood I’m using now I got from a friend who used to own a mill. All my woods are cutoffs from the mill—all western red cedar except for the white, which is pine. Sometimes the black wood is cocobolo from Africa—hard to come by and very expensive, but also very effective in a design.”

For more information about intarsia and to see a gallery of Guy H. Chick’s incredible work, go to www.chickcentral.com. All Labs is excited to offer these two beautiful Lab designs in our Art Gallery with custom pieces available by request.