Marv Kaisersatt

Career

After graduating high school, Kaisersatt joined the US Army and spent time overseas before leaving the military early to teach in Puerto Rico, eventually devoting 29 years to teaching math to junior and senior high school students. He moved to Faribault, Minnesota in 1976 and taught math there until his retirement in 1995.

He began wood carving seriously in 1976 during a teacher's strike and has been teaching caricature carving since 1985. He specializes in carving multi-figure scenes from a single block of basswood. Pieces are carved from a single block of basswood, allowing the carving to take on a sculptural quality through the interplay of mass and space. The carvings are finished with sealer, but not varnished, and presented either without color, or with a hand-painted, detailed, watercolor finish and then waxed.

Kaisersatt teaches classes (held through Whillock Studios and CCA) which focus on design, clay modeling, and carving technique. He is a founding member of the Caricature Carvers of America. The CCA is dedicated to promoting the art of caricature carving. His favorite caricaturist is Al Hirschfeld. Cartooning and caricatures play a large role in Kaisersatt's designs and story lines. His book, Creating Caricature Heads in Wood and on Paper explains carving caricature heads and lays out a detailed procedure for designing them.

Kaisersatt has influenced carvers across the globe and while he doesn't sell his work, his donations to fundraisers raise thousands of dollars for worthy causes.

Awards

Kaisersatt's awards include honors from the International Woodcarvers Congress in Davenport, Iowa where he has won “Best of Caricatures” in 9 of 10 years, the Upper Midwest Woodcarvers Expo in Blue Earth, Minnesota and the Nordic Fest Woodcarving Exhibition in Decorah, Iowa. He was chosen as Wood Carving Illustrated magazine's wood carver of the year in 2006, and Kaisersatt was featured in the Fall 2007 edition of Woodcarver's Magazine.