At sixty-three Derek has been carving for 14yrs. Derek works for Canadian Mountain Holidays Heli-skiing and is also a Certified E.S.L. teacher spending a few months a year in the Highlands of Vietnam and Cambodia, teaching English for tourist based businesses. Shwedagon Pagoda Myanmar, the Wats at Angkor Cambodia and the Champon villages of Vietnam have all been inspirations for his carvings.
The large piece of Soapstone used for the “The Big Black Bear”, Derek found In the Monashee Mountains. This soapstone (vein) has high concentration of Mica and Pyrites (fool’s gold), that makes it especially interesting. Most of Derek’s soapstones are Bears, Owls, Ravens and even a Sasquatch or two. He generally makes only four or five a year and all these stone carvings have found homes, with CMH guests, from all over the World.