[soft guitar music]
- In 1998, '99 I attended a couple local wood carving shows
here in our area.
And the first show I went I was attracted to the fish carvings.
And I decided right there, "I have to give this a try."
My name is Roger Newhouse
and I'm a fish carver from Niagara, Wisconsin.
[sawing sound]
In the beginning it was very challenging for me.
But now that I've been doing for a while
I'm confident that, you know,
I can carve just about any fish in the sea.
I go out and I catch real fish
and I make patterns off of those.
All of the techniques I have,
they're kind of classified material.
Nobody's seen 'em before.
I didn't have a teacher or anybody around here
that carved fish.
It was up to me to learn how to do this on my own.
[high pitched sanding sound]
I didn't get started 'til I was 55 years old.
I'm kind of a walking, living, breathing miracle.
I was abused a lot when I was younger and
I found out alcohol was something that worked
at the time for killing the pain.
So I became addicted to that.
I was in the U.S. Army during Vietnam War.
I had a... I had a hard time after the service.
I was homeless for a number of years.
And then... I went and got myself sober
at Alcoholics Anonymous on October 10th, 1977.
And I haven't had a drink since and that's been 40 years ago.
I don't have to sit here and lick my wounds
and say to myself, "Boy, it's a lousy day.
I'm hurting today."
[soft grinding]
I keep busy from the time I get up till the time I go to bed.
[soft string music]
- I just enjoy the thrill of the creating things
out of wood.
[soft music]
It's really kind of nice that I can go out
into any lake I want, catch a fish out of that lake,
bring it home and replicate it in a piece of wood.
After about 13 months of carving, I got bold
to go to the World Fish Carving Championships that year
held in Springfield, Illinois.
And I ended up winning eight world ribbons
including a first in the world for "Best of Category."
And when I look back on all that,
it's just like,
"I can't believe all of this good has happened to me."
[soft guitar music]
If people are struggling like I did in the beginning,
and struggled for quite a few years on their own,
my best advice is, "Get some help for yourself."
There's strength in numbers.
Never give up.
Always look up.
Never look down.
The answer isn't down, it's always up.
Look up.