By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Like many eighth-graders at the Limestone Community School, Ellyzabeth Bencivenga has a full schedule — schoolwork, sports practices, music lessons, not to mention her duties as Junior Miss Limestone. But on any given Wednesday or Thursday night, her age becomes an empty figure as she seamlessly transitions from youngster to peer in a group of aspiring wood carvers — most at least triple her age — at The Artist’s Nook in Limestone.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Ellyzabeth Bencivenga, 13, of Limestone has carved out more than a hanful of prize-winning pieces. While her most commonly carved subject is horses, she recently completed a profile of a fictional player for the New York Mets — her favorite baseball team.
An apprentice of master woodcarver Tom Cote, Bencivenga has been perfecting her skills for about two years. A sixth-generation carver, she has accumulated quite the collection of antique carving equipment that looks like dentists’ tools merged with a burglar’s kit. Sliver by sliver, she uses each tool differently to mallet, scrape and gouge her way through a block of wood.
“It relieves a lot of stress,” the 13-year-old said, “you start really looking forward to the finished piece and you know you can’t stop until you have it done.”
Though she’s often eager to see her completed piece, Bencivenga “is learning patience and time management through her art,” Cote said. “She’s also learning a lot about constructive criticism.”
“She has a good eye,” he added, “she can look at a piece and see in a second what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Her talents with tools and artist’s eye have earned her four Best of Show ribbons, two Best of Category ribbons in competitions ranging from the Presque Isle fair to the Maine fair and back-to-back Downeast Wood Carving and Wildlife Art Show Best Youth Carving awards — she’s even been a featured apprentice during a music festival in Bangor.
One contest judge even took Cote aside during one competition and told him that the 13-year-old artist shouldn’t be competing in youth categories anymore and suggested she move up a category.
While she does seem to be on a bit of a winning streak, the eighth-grader has been putting her artwork up against the endeavors of high school seniors. Moving up to the next step — the novice category — would mean a tougher, all-ages competition against stronger competitors.
“I’m excited to compete in the novice category next year,” Bencivenga said. “If I lose, I know it means that I need to work harder and show that I can do more for the next year.”
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Sixth generation carver Ellyzabeth Bencivenga has proven to be a stand-out apprentice for master carver (and her grandfather) Tom Cote. Both of them use carefully selected antique tools when they carve because the pair agrees that the older tools just work better.
Showing her competitive side a bit, she recalled how losing one of her first competitions two years ago to an older boy’s carved duck inspired her to improve.
“I couldn’t believe I’d been beaten by a duck!” Bencivenga said, mostly kidding.
Working hard over the next year to improve her skills, she went back to that same competition and received a well-earned blue ribbon.
Since that competition, interestingly enough, she’s carved her own duck; her friends have named it “Fredword.”
Being in the Gifted and Talented Program of RSU 39, Bencivenga is often allowed to work on her carving projects at school and has shown her artwork to many of her fellow students, including a polar bear puppet head she’d carved for a Destination Imagination skit two years ago.
One of her friends even came with her one night to carving class at the Artist’s Nook, only to find that carving isn’t as easy as it may look.
Bencivenga is about to begin a rather ambitious piece, carving a full-sized carousal horse. The last time she carved a carousel horse — a first prize sculpture — it was the hardest piece she’d ever done and it was a fraction of the size of her newest project.
Her improvement can be seen in each piece like an artistic juggernaut, which led to a relatively unexpected lesson for a young artist — she had to learn to let go.
Just turned 13 and she’s sold her first carving.
While showing her art downstate, a woman found Bencivenga’s carving of a fisherman on a buoy to be a must-have item.”
“At first I didn’t want to let it go,” she said. After a few words of supportive encouragement from Cote, she realized that she could always carve another one any time she wanted to.
Cote and Bencivenga are quite the master and apprentice duo; while Bencivenga has been seriously studying the craft for two years, Cote remembers the first time she first helped him with a carving — 11 years ago.
“She was 2, and she helped me apply the stain on a moose carving I’d done,” Cote recalled. Bencivenga is, after all, his granddaughter.
Granddaughter or not, Cote sees a lot of promise in Bencivenga’s artistic career. While she’s not sure whether or not she wants to be an art teacher like her grandfather, she knows that she’ll be studying some aspect of art in college (she has at least three more years to figure out the specifics).
Whether her talent was formed through nature or nurture, the bottom line is that Bencivenga is uncommonly good at what she does.
“By the time she’s 27, she should be competing in the masters category during competitions,” Cote said, which aren’t only the words of a proud grandfather; they’re also an honest impression of a master carver.
