About the ArtistPeg Martinez (aka Square Peg) is a native New Orleanian who discovered her love of fine woodworking in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, when she quit her job as a psychiatric social worker. The COVID 19 pandemic redirected her still, providing time to learn a new wood-related craft. With the help of YouTube videos, magazines, and books, she taught herself how to carve miniature people. The "peeps" were born. Using a single knife, they are carved from basswood, in her case from trees from Wisconsin. Unlike jewelry boxes or furniture, the peeps don't really follow a plan, and use a subtractive process, where material is removed from the outside in. This has required Peg to use a more fluid, imaginative technique. The results are fun and whimsical caricatures that stand proudly at two inches tall. She smiles as she carves them, and hopes that they will bring a smile to your face as well.
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