Populated by his favorite critters, peppered with familiar trees and bordered by the mountain ranges he worships, Nielson’s artwork represents antler-sized slices of the world in which he works, hunts and raises a family.
About 3 1/2 years ago, Nielson began transforming moose racks into elaborate depictions of idyllic scenes common to Montana, and made up some business cards advertising Elk Hollow Custom Carving.
In one piece, a pint-size bowhunter leans out of a tree stand and toward an elk herd grazing in a birch grove. Another shows a bull moose bedded down, with another elk herd grazing in the background.
“Elk are all my all-time favorite critters,” he said. “They just make me crazy.”
But to take a single snapshot requires about 100 hours and the sort of inexhaustible patience that few people possess, or would even welcome.
“There’s no time with this stuff. I just enjoy it so much,” said?Nielson, 28, who carves the antlers in his garage between construction jobs, hunting trips and raising a family. “It’s not like work, where you’re always looking at the clock all day. But I can only work on one for so long. Your head starts to get kind of funky.”
The muscle tone and fur of a moose, for example, require hours of tedious concentration, with Nielson hunched over his canvas - once an animal’s bony outgrowth - holding what looks like a dental drill and slowly routing out bits of horn.
It’s in this timeless manner that Nielson has carved 49 custom moose antlers, which he mounts on twisted, weathered lengths of cedar and sells for about $1,250 - working for a love-wage of $12.50 an hour, not including the money he spends on antlers, which are difficult to find in the wilderness because they are so sought after.
Nielson spends about $26 per pound, with the average moose antler weighing around 14 pounds. In the end, his passion does not bring in enough income to let him quit his day job.
In part, that’s because Nielson’s clientele live mostly in the Bitterroot Valley, between here and Hamilton. His pieces would surely sell for more money in the Big Sky or Flathead areas.
“I’m hoping to break out of the valley and show my pieces where people haven’t seen it, but for now I’ve got my work cut out for me,” he said. “You’ve just got to try and keep living.”
And that he does.
A Hamilton outfitter recently commissioned 20 custom antler carvings, and he’s ready to begin work on several more antlers, which sit in his workshop bearing the penciled outline of his next wilderness tableau. A pair of elk antlers are home to rows and rows of rotary tool bits, like a pin cushion, and foretell the painstaking work ahead.
But Nielson just smiles, having searched all his life for an artistic endeavor that combines his passion for creation and wildlife.
“My dad was a taxidermist and I was always watching him make wildlife,” he recalls. “I’d go out and get a block of Styrofoam and try to carve a duck or something. I’ve always been tinkering.”
Today, the license plate on Nielson’s pick-up truck reads: “CARVEIT.”
Originally from Utah, Nielson moved to Darby in 2000 after a bear hunting trip he took with his brother and dad, who, along with his wife, remains his best hunting buddy. After the trip, Nielson and his brother decided they’d move to the Bitterroot.
“We just quit our jobs and moved up here,” he said.
Eventually, their dad followed. They’ve never regretted the decision.
Nielson started out building lodgepole pine furniture and carving gun stocks, but soon turned to carving antlers - a more organic canvas and, the way Nielson tells it, a fairly forgiving material.
He begins by sketching a scene on one side of the antler, using templates he’s made of moose, elk, bear, antelope, bighorn sheep, mountain lions or waterfowl.
“I’ll take one of my critters and place it where it looks good,” he said.
Once the scene is penciled in, he begins drilling away. Stands of trees he can make entirely three-dimensional, carving clear around each trunk so it stands out against an empty backdrop of white antler. Moose and elk appear sinewy and lifelike.
“I want it to be real. Want to do it justice,” he said. “You get the shape set, and then you start working on the hair and the muscle tones and everything realls starts to stand out and look nice.”
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