Bert Hirt
I was born, raised and educated in Vienna, Austria. In my teens I was involved in many activities, such as Folk Dancing, Music, and boy Scouts. In my Boy Scout days, on my way to our meetings I had to walk past a house, where sometimes, in warm weather, a man was sitting close to the window, carving. I was fascinated, but at that time I felt no hankering yet to try my hand at it. However, it is quite possible that the seed was sown at that time. Then of course I became an adult, eventually got married, and in 1957 we emigrated to Canada.
In my second year in Canada I became unemployed for a very long time. At this time a very good friend, who was a painter, asked me if I would perhaps be interested in wood-carving as a hobby, just to kill boredom. I gave it a try, and my friend provided me with a piece of apple-wood, I had my own jack-knife, so I went at it and carved a pipe with a “human face” on the front of the b owl. I got so carried away by my success, that I invested 99 cents in a small set of carving tools and I made some more out of old files, in other words: I got hooked!
