Whittling your art

Sulton Rogers was born in Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi. His father was a skilled whittler and taught him to carve animals and canes at a young age. In 1941 he married, and he subsequently fathered ten children. Eventually he moved to Syracuse, New York, where he worked at a chemical plant. He started carving again to stay awake during his night shift at the plant. Fellow employees were taking his finished carvings so he started carving coffins. He retired in 1984 and returned to Mississippi. 

Rogers carved his figures from soft woods with a pocket knife. He would use a wood burning tool to add hair and facial features. He made creatures with animal features and human bodies, but his favorite subjects were people. They often had oversized grotesque features, long wagging tongues and noses and devilish grins. The men were dressed in suits and tuxedoes, the women were voluptuous with tight fitting dresses. His figures are amusing and disturbing. He referred to his carvings as "haints" and would sometimes make "haint houses" with many related carvings. Sulton Rogers said he carved human figures based on people he met in his travels and by his dreams, which he called “futures”.