William E. (Bill) Markert
Standing tall at six feet nine inches, Bill Markert enjoys wood carving and art. Since 2010 Bill has transformed wood into creative sculptures, chainsawing totem poles, animals, fish and sea critters. Working with many different types of wood – cedar, boxwood, cypress, sea-tossed driftwood for instance – Bill sees unique creatures taking shape from the weathered natural wood. An alligator floats along. Whales pop from driftwood. Fish swim out from roots of cypress, wood that’s been emerged in water for 500 years and elder boxwood that beetles have bored into turning the wood a warm red when its sap has flowed to protect the tree. Turtles even climb from cedar. All his creations are unique and come is many sizes. And each are artist hand-signed, collectible pieces.
With 30 years of diving around the world, Bill has had many close experiences with sea life. This gives him the advantage of studying his subjects up close and gives his wood carvings true realism.
Married for 38 years, Bill has two children and his daughter is also an artist – a painter. A lifelong Harley Davidson owner and rider, Bill retired to Palm Coast, Florida, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was a mailman for 31 years. He is a graduate of the University of Milwaukee in criminal justice.
Don’t be surprised if you see Bill each morning in the Flagler area along the beach, scouting for drift wood. His collection featured at SeaCasas is work worth the trip. We call it our wall aquarium!