Woodturner wins first place at Calgary Stampede

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Behind Joe Van Keulen’s ordinary looking garage door hides a fully equipped woodturning workshop that houses an unparalleled talent and numerous nonpareil creations – one of which won first place for woodworking at the Calgary Stampede this year.
The Strathmore resident stumbled across woodturning a decade ago, and upon retirement adapted his technique to include dyes, stains, wood burning, dental drills, and airbrushing. His creative approaches – such as pyrography and piercing – and out-of-the-box thinking, led to much recognition and multiple awards over the years.
“I did things with wood all along, building stuff, but I wanted to be more creative and then I found out about woodturning,” said Van Keulen. “Eight years ago or so, there was a big show of all these people who do this for a living, and I saw stuff I couldn’t imagine. So that’s when I really got hooked on it. Woodturners usually don’t do this. They turn wood and it’s round. But the more I add, the more difficult it is for anyone else to copy me.”
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Van Keulen moved his family to Strathmore in 1982, and worked as a power engineer for Agrium. After participating in a woodturning course in Calgary, Van Keulen quickly turned his passion into what he called a second career. While power engineering and woodturning differ overall, he was able to apply some of his engineering skills in creating his own woodturning tools.
When he is not busy with to-do lists created by his family, Van Keulen can be found in his garage for a minimum of four hours a day, creating one-of-a-kind objects by hand. Often working on five pieces at a time, the artist utilizes maple, birch, and ash, found locally east of Strathmore, while incorporating the natural cracks and imperfections of the wood in his products.
“I honestly didn’t know that I had this in me,” he said. “I’m the colourful guy, and people ask ‘how do you do this stuff?’ and I tell them, and then they go home and don’t do it. There’s a lot of things I learned the hard way, but I’m willing to go over the top.”
His attitude contributed to entering a thin wooden platter with a butterfly and flower design pierced out of the material, this year at the Calgary Stampede. The Strathmore local entered pieces into the competition for the past three years, winning various awards each year.
The platter will be showcased at the FCSS boardroom at 85 Lakeside Blvd in the near future.
To view more of Van Keulen’s work visit his website (www.joevankeulen.ca).