Decoy carving is truly an art form native to America. It is a true expressive art form that we as Americans can claim to ourselves. If you are a duck hunter, you know the pleasure and excitement of seeing those large flocks of birds breaking over your decoys or settling in. If you’re not a hunter, but a collector of “Americana”, then this is also a true pleasure for you, the end result of decoy carving. Duck hunting and duck decoy carving are truly two of my favorite things to do in life. These two are right at the top of a large list of things that, well let’s just say are part of life. My life is filled with the sounds of the outdoors and trying to recreate nature’s beauty. Holding a raw piece of cedar in my hands and then shaping it into something that is not only functional and useful, but also a work of art itself, is quite a rewarding challenge. To shape and carve from that piece of wood an item of beauty and function is sure a pleasure to me. The feeling of holding that piece of wood and watching it take shape is hard to explain. The smell of the cedar dust in the air, the feel of the tools in your hand, the smoothness of the finished wood, and then the final outcome-- completely out of your head-- and a desire to create something to fool those ducks, well it’s just a great feeling. This Drake Canvasback decoy represents to me, just that effort and feeling, a feeling of a tradition that is passed on to each new generation of sportsmen and women who take to the fields, boats and blinds in noble pursuit of skies filled with waterfowl. Duck hunting, is and has always been a “King’s Sport”, reserved for those who dream of those “V” filled skies, yet are fulfilled with just the sight of one pass for one day, legs down, wings set… Could anything be any better at that moment, I ask you!