Fla. wood carver enlivens town with quirky works

[May 31, 2008]  APALACHICOLA, Fla. (AP) -- There's a wooden Indian just inside Ed Moberly's home with a cardboard sign in his hand that reads "Sorry, we are not for sale."

The message applies not only to the Indian, but to the giant frog that appears to be holding up the back corner of the house. And the larger-than-life bald eagle perched in the front yard, the little white bear looking up from the floor and the vultures that stare at you as you walk through the home.

"I've been criticized for not parting with them," Moberly said while standing in a room crowded with his wood creations - mermaids, a pirate, a wild boar impaled by a bloody arrow, a raccoon flattened in the middle by a tire track and more. "Some people have come in and claimed I'm selfish because I've got all these treasures and I won't share them."

But anyone who calls him selfish just doesn't know Moberly, a 75-year-old retired insurance adjuster. He welcomes tourists into his home and yard, a virtual folk art museum crammed with the colorful, eye-catching pieces, and his work livens up this entire lost-in-time town on the Florida Panhandle.

"Mr. Ed's a giver," said Ann Sizemore, the local librarian who works among a wooden toucan, pelican, giant green frog and anhinga (a large seabird) carved by Moberly. "We're blessed to have his work in here ... Lots of times a library is dull, but we're not dull here."

Moberly doesn't have any art training and didn't start carving until he moved 10 years ago to Apalachicola, about 80 miles southwest of Tallahassee. "It's what you do when you don't have anything better to do," he said of the hobby.

"When I first started I sold three fish for $400 and then I realized that was a mistake. I shouldn't have done it. I didn't want to do anything but keep this as a hobby," Moberly said. "That was my first and last sale."

He explains some of the reasons he doesn't sell the works - he would rather carve what inspires him than what other people order up, he doesn't want people to come back and complain if the wood has termites - but after talking to him for a while it becomes clear that each piece means something to him personally.

"When I first did a human face, it was sort of a little godlike feeling," he said with a chuckle. "You know, like all of a sudden this wood is looking back at me and it looks human. It's like having a hand in creation. I kind of enjoyed that."

And when he does see his work around this town of under 3,000 that's best known for oysters and shrimp, it fills him with a good feeling.

"It's an ego trip and I need that because you get down in the dumps. I've had some depression and had to take some medicine for it and different things. It's a nice feeling to know that something I made is standing there and you'll see tourists taking pictures of it," he said.

One piece that's popular with tourists is a towering mermaid under an umbrella outside The Tin Shed, a nautical antiques store.

"Everybody wants to buy it. Everybody wants to buy everything he's got," said owner Harry Arnold, who appreciates the treasure Moberly gave him. "Good Lord, I'd hate to think of what something like that would cost. I don't even know where I'd start to price his stuff."

While the pieces around town are impressive, Arnold quickly recommended going to Moberly's house.

"That's a real museum in wood art. Every room, every wall, everywhere," he said.

The tiny home is on a side street that's quiet, except for the sound of nearby roosters and an occasional "Hello" from his pet parrot Moby. Moberly doesn't seek out attention, but if he's home, he'll gladly show people around and talk about his work, no charge.

"I've been coming into the house for six years and I still see things that I don't remember seeing before," said Andrew Kahn, a photographer who has taken carving lessons from Moberly. "There's always something new when you come to Ed's house."

Moberly is quiet and modest and has a quirky sense of humor that sometimes sneaks up on you. His laugh and Kentucky accent fit in well in this town where no one seems to be in a rush. And his work reflects his personality, a little eccentric, but pleasantly interesting.

One work that he's loaned to a friend shows a shark with legs in fishing boots sticking from its mouth, along with a single arm holding onto a can of beer.

"This is what you call a redneck. Somebody that hangs onto their beer," Moberly says. "If it was my first beer for the day I would probably hang onto it."

At Sizemore's library, he points to a shark that's biting a frightened looking fish as two others try to escape. He had to move the piece from another library further down the coast when some mothers complained it scared their children.

Moberly laughs when telling the story, quipping, "Sharks can't go to McDonald's."

Moberly jokes that he's the best wood carver in Apalachicola, only because there aren't any others. He considers his work slightly above average and refuses to sign any of it. "I think that detracts from something to hang your name on stuff," he says.

There have been times when he's made pieces by request. There was the man who wanted a Winnie the Pooh bear for his young son who had a heart transplant.

"I didn't know what Winnie the Pooh was - I'm too old," Moberly said. "So he brought me a little Winnie the Pooh and I made him a great big one. Three years later the little boy died."

Then there was the man who wanted a 44-inch red fish, the same size as one he caught.

"I said, 'I'm not in business. I really don't do that,'" Moberly said, recalling the man's response. "'Oh I'm kind of disappointed. This will probably be the last one I'll ever catch.' He said, 'I've got cancer and I'm dying of it.' So I carved him up one."

[Associated Press; By BRENDAN FARRINGTON]

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