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8A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, February 13,2019
Lanier Village Estates resident
makes wood art come to life
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS DCN Regional Staff
Hilda Bell observes one of her carvings Wednesday, Jan. 30, at Lanier Village
Estates. Bell has dedicated her later life to art and has been wood carving
since the 1980s.
Northside Hospital,
Gwinnett Health
System to merge
BY Layne Saliba
DCN Regional Staff
Hilda Bell is not a
whittler or a woodworker,
she’s a woodcarver, and
she’s made that clear over
the last 39 years.
Since retiring from
nursing in 1980, she’s
looked for ways to stay
busy. She’s run the gamut
of your typical hobbies:
painting, knitting and cro
cheting, but never found
much enjoyment in those
things. Bell, a Lanier
Village Estates resident,
decided to pick up wood
carving.
“I picked it up right
away, quick and in a
hurry,” said Bell, 95, sit
ting in a recliner in her
home, surrounded by
wood carvings she’s done
over the years. “And the
teacher said I was quite
fast and quite prolific, too,
because I did three times
as much in those first
three weeks than the other
people in the class did.”
She started out the same
way as everyone else —
with a dog. As soon as she
mastered that, along with
some other small animals
like ducks, she moved on
to other classes and began
carving larger things. She
likes to carve busts now,
anything from an
American Indian to an
explorer or conquistador.
“The first big one I did,
he turned out to look like
my father-in-law,” Bell
said as she pointed to the
figure sitting near a plant
in her home. “And then ...
I did another one after that
one and it looked like his
brother.”
For all of the carvings
of animals and other small
figures, Bell said she uses
basswood, which she said
is the softest of the hard
woods. For bigger items,
she uses butternut for its
“beautiful grain.”
She never uses pine
because there’s too much
sap in the softwood and
she never uses cedar
because the texture isn’t
consistent throughout,
making it difficult to carve.
No matter how hard she
tries, she can never make
the same carving twice.
She said it’s impossible,
but she always ends up
pleased with how things
turn out, though.
“You can carve with
anything that works,” Bell
said. “And even another
piece of wood will smooth
another piece of wood like
a piece of sandpaper.”
Bell remembers the first
first woodcarving show
she attended like it was
yesterday.
She and her friend had
set everything up on a
table. She was wasting
time, working with a small
palm chisel while waiting
for the show to open. She
said the chisel wasn’t sharp
enough — which is when
the danger of cutting your
self is elevated — and it
slipped, cutting her hand in
the process.
A man sitting nearby
handed her a handkerchief
out of his pocket and
helped her to the hospital
to get stitches.
“That just goes to prove,
it’s blood, sweat and tears
that we carve these things
with,” Bell said.
She feels like she has to
use those manual tools to
carve, so she’s OK with
the risk. The alternate is
using electric tools, but
she said “if you use an
electric tool, you’re cheat
ing.”
She jokes around with
Bill Terry, another Fanier
Village resident, who has
been carving for about 20
years. His expertise is in
animals. He carves ducks,
birds and even chipmunks,
but he uses an electric tool
that spins and shaves away
the wood.
“I use a knife every now
and then,” Terry, 84, said.
Bell’s carvings usually
stay natural, so you can
see the grain and the intri
cate details everywhere,
but Terry likes to paint his.
He said they come to life
that way, especially when
he paints the eyes.
“I burn the feathers in
with a little burning tool,”
Terry said. “And then I
paint them white first, and
then paint the rest. It takes
me as long to paint it as it
does to carve it.”
Terry is part of the
woodcarving group that
meets at Fanier Village.
Each person sits around a
table, flecks of wood fall
ing to the floor as they
carve, helping each other
or offering different ideas
when needed. Some have
been at it for decades, oth
ers like Ted Johnson, just
six years.
“When I was a kid, I
was always carving stuff
with a pocket knife,”
Johnson, 86, said. “So I
had a little interest in it.
When I got here, I needed
something to do to occupy
my time and I saw Bill’s
birds and thought that
looked like a good waste
of time.”
He saw a bronze figu
rine sitting on a shelf at
Fanier Village and took
inspiration from that when
he was first starting out.
“The guy was leapfrog
ging, turned the wrong
way and I thought to
myself you don’t leapfrog
that way,” Johnson, said.
“So, I carved him and put
it like it oughta be.”
Both Terry and Johnson
carve smaller figures, but
Bell carves larger ones
and they take up quite a
bit of space, especially as
she has moved around
since she picked up the
hobby. Along the way,
she’s made sure to pass
down some of the carv
ings to her four daughters
and her grandchildren.
She doesn’t like simply
getting rid of them and
she would have to charge
too much if she sold them,
so she makes sure to pass
them down and keep them
in the family.
It takes about 20 hours
to do the face of one of
her carvings. Once she
carves out the rest of the
bust, it could be up to 60
hours.
But she likes the flexi
bility of it and the satisfac
tion of seeing the final
product once she’s done.
Even at 95 years old, she’s
spends her free time carv
ing and doesn’t plan on
stopping any time soon.
“You can forget it for
months and then turn
around and pick it up
again,” Bell said. “And
when you think about
what you have to start out
with and what you end up
with, even to the wood
carver, is amazing.”
By Kelly Whitmire
DCN Regional Staff
After years of work,
Northside Hospital and
Gwinnett Health System,
which is over Gwinnett
Medical Center, has
announced a merger of the
two systems that will go
into effect this summer.
The systems announced
the merger Tuesday after a
merger agreement was
approved by the state attor
ney general’s office in
November 2017 and the
Federal Trade
Commission reviewed the
merger and approved. The
new system is set to be in
operation by this summer.
“We are excited to move
forward on the merging of
our two health systems,”
said Bob Quattrocchi,
president and CEO of
Northside in a news
release. “Feaders from
both systems are already
meeting to develop a com
prehensive integration plan
that honors our employees
and physicians. This plan
ensures that our patients
continue to receive quality
health care with no disrup
tion of service.”
The combined system
will have more than 1,600
inpatient beds, over 250
outpatient locations,
21,000 employees and
3,500 physicians and five
hospitals in Sandy Springs,
Fawrenceville, Cumming,
Canton and Duluth.
The nonprofit system
will operate more care
sites for cancer treatment,
imaging, surgical, urgent
care and outpatient centers.
“Through the merged
entity, Gwinnett County
will continue to have
access to world-class med
ical treatment,” said Philip
Wolfe, president and CEO
of Gwinnett Health
System, in the release.
“Health care is a dynamic
industry that requires com
plex technology, highly-
skilled medical profession
als and exceptional leader
ship. I’m confident the
merger will help sustain
our ability to offer leading-
edge, compassionate and
effective health care close
to home for many years to
come.”
All Northside and
Gwinnett Health System
employees will continue
their employment after the
merger, and they expect
the new system to create
more job opportunities.
The name and branding
of the new system will be
decided before the merger
is finalized, according to
officials, while the systems
“will focus on finalizing
patient, operational and
business functions.”
According to informa
tion from the new system,
the Northside and
Gwinnett “have common
goals that represent critical
building blocks for a com
bined health care system:
to ensure the continued
enhancement of quality
care; to build a strong and
aligned primary care net
work; to maintain strong
financial performance; to
innovate and improve pro
cesses; to optimize tech
nology; and to provide an
adaptive culture.
The merger will also
“create mutually beneficial
objectives and outcomes”
as Gwinnett is known for
cardiovascular care, sports
medicine and post-acute
care and Northside is
known for cancer care,
women’s health and spe
cialized surgical care.
More information and
regular updates about the
merger are available at
NorthsideGwinnett.com.
A collection of Lanier Village Estates resident Hilda Bell's first wood carvings
of dogs and other animals is on display in her apartment at the retirement
community.
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