Avenue Bread wood carver

By Racquel Arceo

Avenue Bread may be known for its assortment of artisan breads, pastries, and soups but there is one item that isn’t feature on the menu. While searching for a table, customers may stumble upon a man whittling away.

About five days a week, for the past year and a half, Steve LaMarine turns a table in the diner in to his own personal workshop.

Since moving to Bellingham about eight and a half years a go to be closer to his daughter and her growing family, LaMarine has retired.

Before bringing his talent to Avenue Bread LaMarine would do pieces for friends and family sending his work across the country, like to Philadelphia and Atlanta.

LaMarine taught himself how to carve caricatures when he was just 16 but said that since he was a baby he had always been doing something with wood. Growing up his father was a carpenter so material was always available to him.

Since retirement LaMarine said he really started getting in to his carving and learning about it through different magazines.

“I think a lot of people who say they have no artistic ability are working in the wrong medium,” he said.

After stopping in for breakfast with his wife one morning LaMarine decided Avenue Bread would be a good place to carve.

“I started coming here because I don’t really have a place to work at home,” LaMarine said.

When he first started carving at Avenue Bread he would only work for 30-40 minutes during his breakfast, keeping quiet about what he was doing. Now LaMarine sits openly, for hours at a time, carving, keeping pieces proudly displayed in front of him for curious customers to see.

“It also explains why there’s a man sitting there with a sharp knife,” LaMarine said.

LaMarine enjoys working in Avenue Bread so often because of the atmosphere. He said he likes hearing the happy people around him talking and laughing.

“No one comes to a restaurant to fight, and that’s what I want to hear, laughter,” he said. “I’ve been photographed seven times by tourist. It really cracks me up.”

Working alone, LaMarine doesn’t produce enough pieces to sell commercially; in fact, when he first started, he wasn’t selling his work at all, just giving it away. 

“This last year was the first time I’ve ever sold anything,” he said.

He made the decision to start selling when there suddenly became a high demand in his turtle carvings. Being one of his favorite pieces to carve, LaMarine said his turtle is his trademark carving though his Santa Claus carvings are his best sellers.

Charging around three dollars an hour LaMarine doesn’t make much of a profit but, for him, that isn’t the point.

“I don’t want this to get to be a business where I’m working on deadlines, that takes the fun out of it. I didn’t retire from marketing just to switch to another stressful job, I don’t want to add more stress to my life,” LaMarine said. “[Carving is] something I do for fun, not for the money.”

Currently LaMarine is working on a few pieces to donate to animal rescue and a donkey he was commissioned to carve.
“A lot of the stuff I make, it’s the first time I’ve ever made it,” he said.

Carving in the restaurant LaMarine tries to be courteous, not just to the customers, but also to the staff, never leaving behind a mess.
LaMarine doesn’t do much in the ways of advertising, he said people mostly hear of him through word mouth but he is working on setting up a page on Facebook. For now, LaMarine can be contacted at slamarine@aol.com