Unplugged: December

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Award-Winning Duck Decoys

This Dentist's No Quack at Carving

By Michael J. Fitzgerald
Dr. Brock Hinton puts in long days as a prosthodontist in several area dental offices. He’s a specialist whose work on people’s teeth is considered enough of an art that he is frequently swamped with referrals.
    But after hours — and whenever he can on weekends — the 44-year-old father of two girls (2- and 5-years-old) relaxes by carving realistic and delicate wooden ducks. For Hinton, this hobby is more than a way to unwind; he dreams of winning a world championship with the art form.
    Growing up in the small town of Willows, just west of Chico, a 17-year-old Hinton went to the county fair and made friends with a veteran carver, knowing right away that these animal replicas were something he had to make.
    “I was fascinated that people could make a piece of wood look so lifelike,” he says. “It was combining all the things that I liked: nature, artistry and the birds, all in one.”
    Hinton has been in practice 17 years since graduating with a dental degree from Emory University in Atlanta and is the image of a modern, uniformed medical professional — all science, technology and business. That image might seem to clash with the delicacy of the wood carvings he produces, except that Hinton is on the artful end of dentistry, specializing in implants, crowns, bridges and cosmetics.

Continued...

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