On September 20-21, the Utah Valley Woodcarvers Club held its annual woodcarving event featuring several local carvers, including a 14-year-old boy who wowed the judges with his rendition of “The world’s first selfie.”

Daxton Checketts of Syracuse made the trip all the way down to Spanish Fork to learn from some of the best the state has to offer – while also showing them a thing or two.

Daxton began carving when he was 10 years old, when his grandfather, who lives in Spanish Fork, introduced him to the trade. 

“Originally when I wanted to start carving, my family lived in Alaska,” Daxton explained. “I was bored and I knew my grandpa sold carving lumber. And so when I asked my grandpa, he ended up sending up a box with some things to carve with and a book. Then I tried to carve something out of the book and it didn’t go too well and I didn’t enjoy it. I cut myself a few times, and so I ended up throwing that away and it sat under my bed for a while.”

As time went on, and as the broken wood and unused tools sat under his bed, Daxton recalled asking his parents if they would buy him something. As a way of earning that item, his dad told him that he needed to learn how to carve something. 

“My dad told me that I couldn’t get what I wanted until I showed him that I was able to carve something because all the stuff my grandpa gave me was expensive,” Daxton said. “It turned into kind of a punishment. For the longest time, I tried to carve this gnome and I hated almost every second of it.  And then my grandpa came up to visit and I asked him to help me finish it and he said he would. And so that whole trip when we would have downtime, he would help me carve it, and when I finished, my grandma helped me paint it. I just really enjoyed carving with my grandpa having someone to carve with.”

Not long after, Daxton’s dad, who is active duty military, got the chance to move his family back to Utah. This gave Daxton the chance to not only be closer to his grandparents, but it opened him up to a whole new world of woodcarvers. 

Daxton’s grandpa is the main wood supplier for the show in Spanish Fork, and he convinced his grandson to submit one of the gnomes he carved.  

“After that show, everyone said I was really good,” Daxton said. “So I just kept carving and I’ve submitted something the past four years in the (Utah Valley Woodcarvers) show and in other shows in Utah and Colorado.”

The piece that Daxton submitted at this year’s show, he titled, “World’s First Selfie,” where a 19th century cowboy takes a photo of himself with a tripod and a camera. The piece is both comical and genius – and really well done. Daxton said that he got a lot of accolades for his piece that started out as just trying to think outside of the box. 

“I made this one for a contest in Colorado called the “Ugly Cowboy Carving Contest,” he said. “I looked at all the carvings that were submitted the year prior and most were the basic cowboys picking their nose or drooling or whatever, and none of them won. The only one that won was the one with a smile, so I wanted to make a cowboy with a smile. My original idea was to have a guy taking a picture of someone else, and then my grandpa told me I should have him taking a picture of himself.”

Daxton took first place in the youth category, and was in fact, the only youth to submit something. He said that he is often the only youth at these shows, and he said that it has been exciting to learn from so many seasoned carvers, particularly Mary Dame, who was the show’s featured carver. 

“I think my favorite part about all the shows is the people,” he said. “All of them are willing to talk and go through the process of everything, and there’s just so much to learn from everyone, since most of the people there are all older. I really enjoy talking to all of them and hearing stories. Mary Dame is going to give me and my grandpa a class on how to carve one of those realistic songbirds because I really struggle with realistic things. Everyone’s always willing to teach. That’s probably my favorite thing about the shows.”

While the Utah Valley Woodcarvers Show may be over, the group still holds classes and monthly meetings. For more information, go to uvwc.org.