(QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- “It’s reductive art- you have to take stuff away from it.”

There’s a constant rotation of carvings outside of ‘Mountain Mike’s Whetsone Woodworks’ in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

“You can’t miss it- we’ve got lots of carvings out front,” said Mike Ayers.

Normally, the sculptures are enough to make those driving by make an additional stop on their way through town. But business has not been usual- not at all.

“That’s all you can do,” said Mike. “Hold your head up and try to make a positive out of it.”

Mike is an artist of subtraction, shaving away layer by layer until he’s left with something beautiful.

“Trying to remove all the stuff you don’t want, to get to what you do want,” said Mike. “Remove the bad stuff as much as you can.”

Some bad stuff cannot be remo

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