The Artist
Artists Bio
Lance is a lifelong outdoorsman. Growing up in North Dakota, his Father instilled in him a love of camping, hunting, and fishing throughout the Western US, Alaska, and Canada. As a young man his love of the outdoors drew him to the mountains of Western Montana where he became a Fly Fishing guide. He guided on the world famous blue ribbon trout waters of the Gallatin and Madison Rivers. He later moved to Arizona where he has made his home for the last 25 years. He is a volunteer instructor for the Hunter Education Programs in his adopted home state. He brings his outdoor experiences and observations of wildlife and makes them part of his art.
Working with wood has always been a passion for Lance. He built custom furniture to help make ends meet while in college. His love of woodworking grew to incorporate the designing and building both rustic and mission style hardwood furniture.
At a Phoenix gun show in 2003, he met Dr. Lew Jensen of Profitable Hobbies Inc. and discovered the Paragraver carving system. He immediately realized the possibilities of this system in his own work. Those possibilities for his woodworking expanded into areas he never before imagined. Having always loved the look of the classic carvings on the gunstocks of the great British and European Artisans, now he had found a way to do the type of carving he had admired so much.
Since then, Lance’s Custom Gunstock Carvings and Ivory Inlays have earned numerous Awards at Arizona’s State Fair and other carving competitions. His engraved hunting knives have been featured and sold at Fundraising Auctions for the “Friends of the NRA” and “Single Action Shooters Society” in Arizona.
Although he carves all species of North American wildlife, Lance has always had a special appreciation for the Wildlife of Africa. From African plains game like the Majestic Kudu, the Beautiful Sable antelope, the Impala, the Gemsbok, the huge Cape Eland, or a big Warthog; to Africa’s “Big Five”, Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Leopard, and Africa’s “Black Death”, the Cape Buffalo.
“Just because you haven’t been to the “Dark Continent” doesn’t mean you can’t dream of it every time you pick up that special rifle.”