By Dennis McCaslin - Today in Fort Smith
Have you ever seen Bigfoot within the city limits of Fort Smith? Gorillas? Jaguars?
Having stumbled onto a place in Fort Smith where you can see all three, albeit the stationary kind, opens the door to the story of a very artistic couple that made a great living after the age of 50 and produced pieces of pop art that are still highly sought by collectors and endure to this day.
Rosemary and Marvin Van Hook, who live at the intersection of Savannah and South 28th on Fort Smith's southside, started a business out of nowhere virtually decades ago in Mansfield and turned a hobby and a curiosity into an amazing story.
Marvin, of Vietnam vet, was a highly successful drywall contractor for years. His work in drywall had earned him numerous contracts, not only in the region but throughout the United States
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It was during one of these trips to Texas on a drywall contract when he and a friend attended a big flea market. A vendor at that flea market was selling hand-carved bird replicas and selling them for what Marvin thought was an insane amount of money.
'I told my friend that I thought I could carve Birds as well as the vendor that was selling them in Texas,"", Marvin said. "I went home and got a piece of wood and just started carving."
"The first one was awful", Marvin laughed. "After that I just kept working at it and eventually got better.
Marvin said that the beginning Rosemary offered to pitch in and said she would paint the birds that he carved. At the time, the couple was just basically carving out the birds and varnishing them and selling them from their front yard in Mansfield.
"I told her she didn't know anything about painting birds and she just need to leave my carvings alone," Marvin said. "She painted a few and they started selling like hotcakes. And I guess the rest is just history....she sure showed me."
And that history is quite amazing. Marvin says he was already tired of the drywall business and wanted to retire and after they saw the success they were having selling their creations, it became possible. For the next two and a half decades the couple produced, lifelike, art-deco, quality carvings of not only birds but other animals as well, and became known throughout the United States for their work.
"At one point we had people flying in on their private jets and loading up our pieces and taking them back with them", Martin said. " The whole thing just kind of blew up over the years and we had pretty good success at it."
Marvin says at some point he figures he's carved just about every bird in existence but he specializes in egrets, blue herons, and other similar type avarian species. The couple eventually moved on to small animals, and later started using their carvings as sources of molds they could use to turn their creations into fiberglass.
He had started experimenting with larger animals when he was contacted by a Native American tribe in Florida about the possibility of making some jaguars.
The Miccosukee tribe were displaced during the Seminole Wars from 1817-1858 and during that period many Seminoles were forced to relocate west of the Mississippi river to what is now the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. A group of 200 or fewer defiant Seminoles would stay in Florida.
Fiercely independent and tied to traditional practices, the tribe thought for years before finally gaining Federal recognition in 1962. The tribe was centrally located at that time in the Big Cypress swamp area of Florida.
Fast forward decades later and now the tribe occupied several reservations in Southern Florida. In addition to their casinos, hotels, other tourist attractions, they also run convenience stores and other businesses.
Marvin was contacted by the tribe about carving a jaguar. He did so, and that led to other opportunities for the business.
Marvin said the price of their carvings run from $ 300 for a life-size Egret all the way up to $10,000 for an oversized gorilla or Bigfoot.
The money couple made from their allowed them to invest in rent houses, and when they decided to retire from the art world several years back they moved to Fort Smith. They lived in another one of the homes they owned before moving to the present location at the corner of South 28th and Savannah.
At that location you can see a naturalistic landscaped Garden area meant to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. In addition, on the corner of the intersection, three Jaguars like the one created for the Miccosukee tribe stand as guardians of the property. In the white rock landscaped area are birds, turtles, and other various hard-created members of the menagerie.
But the most impressive part of the display might be the 10-ft Bigfoot peering over the 8-ft privacy fence next to the house. In addition there's a gorilla keeping a silent vigil over Savannah Street.
The couple also dabbled in traditional art as you can see from the photograph accompanying this article.
Marvin says even though the couple is retired from the art business world, and are not currently making any more pieces, he still has some inventory on hand.
"We probably have about 300 birds left for sale and a triple handful of other items", said Marvin.
"We still get inquiries from time to time from old customers and we're still willing to sell anything that we might have.'
The couple, both 80 now, has endured and enjoyed every step of the journey. And it's not often you get to see a self-taught artistic couple build a successful business, retire from that business, build another successful business, and also retire from that business as well.
Not only did the Van Hook's accomplish all that, but they did it with an artistic style.
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