Eureka-based artist gives skulls another life through intricate carving, painting

The skulls are rugged but the intricately carved designs are delicate.

This intriguing contrast reflects the varying life experiences of the maker Joe Hickey, who spent years in the steel industry and in football arenas before picking up paint brushes and tools to create his complex artworks.

Hickey specializes in carving and painting animal skulls. Most of his work has been on buffalo skulls but he has also created art out of various animal skulls such as elk, cow, ram, bear and coyote.

Hickey claims he cannot paint on a flat surface; he needs the valleys and ridges of a skull to inspire his carvings and paintings. While he often has an idea of what he wants to depict, for the most part, he lets the contours of the skull determine the design.

He started buying buffalo skulls from antique stores and garage sales when he moved to Eureka in 2004. Before long, several skulls were collecting dust in the garage and Hickey’s wife, Rita Mae, gave him the impetus he needed to get to work.

“Go out in the garage and figure out what you’re going to do with those skulls because if you’re not going to do something with them, I’m going to throw them out,” Hickey recalls his wife saying.

He looked online, found a painted skull and tried to duplicate it. In the 1990s he had dabbled in making rustic wooden furniture but that was the extent of his artistic activities until the skulls took hold and he began painting and later carving them.

“It's just something I found that I could do,” he shrugged. “When you're an old offensive lineman you have to use whatever brain cells are left to try to figure things out.”

In the beginning, he was solely painting on the skulls until he saw the work of Balinese artists who create masterfully carved skulls and wanted to give that technique a try.

“I bought myself a cheap little Dremel and some burrs and did some experimenting,” Hickey explained.

He continued to buy better, higher-grade rotary tools until he finally bought a dental drill which increased his available power from 9,000 rotations per minute to 35,000 and allowed him to carve more intricate patterns.

Steven Cawdrey became interested in Hickey’s work after seeing several of his skulls on display in the Manifestations Gallery in Eureka and asked Hickey to bring some work to the Cawdrey Gallery in Whitefish.

“He brought in a couple, one etched and one painted,” Cawdrey said. “Within three days, both had sold, so I asked, ‘Do you have a bunch more?’”

Hickey is a featured artist at the Cawdrey Gallery for the month of May along with oil painter Sandy Bridgewater. Hickey was chosen by the Cawdreys to be one of their first featured artists as the local art community begins the Whitefish Gallery Nights for the summer season.

On the first Thursday of each month from May to October, the art community of Whitefish comes together from 6 to 9 p.m. to host an evening of exhibits and receptions.

HICKEY’S LIFE is as fascinating as his artwork. He is originally from Philadelphia and worked in the steel industry for 35 years, played semi-professional football for five years and served as a football coach for 12 more.

He was a wildland firefighter before becoming a certified hazardous materials manager and running the FEMA trailer operation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. His work took him around the state of Montana until a few years ago when he got to come home to Eureka. He still works a high-pressure job shipping truckloads of nitrogen to refineries and oil fields and is looking forward to retiring at the end of this year.

Work kept him on the road and moving around the state for years but now that he is at his home in Eureka, his art-making productivity has increased dramatically. He said he’s worked on more skulls in the past three years than ever before.

“My carving work, it’s become my passion when I'm not doing my regular job,” Hickey said. “I can be in my work shed for hours. Nine out of 10 times, Rita has to call me and say, ‘Hey Joe, you’ve been out there for seven hours.’”

Hickey buys about 20 buffalo skulls each year and has recently found a local source for steer and ram heads. He has them cleaned locally by a man who boils the skulls before allowing a team of beetles to eat the remaining flesh from the bone. The skulls are then bleached, providing Hickey with a clean slate upon which to work.

“Buffalo have a tremendous history in our world; we’ve worked so hard in the past to destroy them,” he added. “One of the concepts from the Balinese artists is you can never waste any part of an animal. Instead of throwing the heads in the trash bin, it’s my way of giving these things some life and showing respect.”