Wesley L. Wagner was born in Concord, N.C., and was raised in the nearby town of Mt. Pleasant. When he was a teenager, his family moved to North Myrtle Beach, S.C. where he still resides. He has been been building things of wood since the age of 12. He has had an affinity for wood his entire life.
Wes works out of a small shop in his home and considers himself a hobbyist. He creates only those items he feels a desire to create and does not do commission work.
“I don’t call myself an artist, however I have always had an eye for shape, and I love the feel and warmth of wood. a one-of-a-kind creation that brings out the hidden natural beauty of the wood … one that is graceful, functional and enduring is the end produce that I seek.
“Some of my pieces are simply an open raw display of wood’s warm beauty. Others have a subtle, alluring grace that is hard to define. In most cases all the credit for creative beauty must go to the tree and the wood itself. I simply uncloak what is already there. It is this finding of the hidden that is the reward in the creation of each piece.
“I locate, fell, log and mill all of my timber. Virtually all the wood that I use comes from North and South Carolina, with the vast majority coming from along South Carolina’s Waccamaw River. Red Maple, Cypress, Water Locust, Pignut Hickory, Water Elm, Cherry and Persimmon are my favorites. Most of the wood I use comes from dead, wind-tooppled trees, lightening strikes or logging casualties. The Atlantic White Cedar used in the boats comes from trees downed by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The resinous Cypress in the Nakashima style benches comes from logging debris from a tree felled in 1921.”