BAXTER'S WAY TOO BUSY TO SLOW DOWN.Byline: BETTIE RENCORET Senior columnist LANCASTER - Charles ``Chuck'' Baxter is multitalented. He's an award-winning artist in oils, water colors, pencils, sculpture and wood carving wood carving, as an art form, includes any kind of sculpture in wood, from the decorative bas-relief on small objects to life-size figures in the round, furniture, and architectural decorations. The woods used vary greatly in hardness and grain. . He's an accomplished ballroom dancer, loves to sail his own boat and was a hang gliding hang gliding Sport of flying in unpowered aircraft that are light enough to be carried by the pilot. Takeoff is usually achieved by launching into the air from a cliff or hill. Hang gliders were developed by the pioneers of practical flight. enthusiast until injured on one soaring plummet that forced him into permanent retirement. After his accident, he took up sailing and bicycling. He entered races with his own boat and took several trophies. Bicycling was his own version of physical therapy. It was fun and it helped to exercise his ailing legs. He still goes out on his bike sometimes. In the past few years, he's enjoyed renovating his home and the two other buildings on his downtown property. ``I've always enjoyed working with my hands,'' he said. ``I've rebuilt all three of the houses here, and I plan to improve another lot in the back. I may put another house on that piece.'' Baxter is almost a native of Antelope Valley. He was born in Los Angeles and came to the valley as a baby with his parents. When he was 2 years old, he fell out of the back seat of a moving car and suffered a compression fracture compression fracture n. A fracture caused by the compression of one bone, especially a vertebra, against another. compression fracture Compression axial fracture, crush fracture Orthopedics 1. to his back. ``Thirty-eight years later, I crashed that hang glider and fractured it again. That didn't do me any good. It put me on the sidelines On the sidelines An investor who decides not to invest due to market uncertainty. on the sidelines Of or relating to investors who, having assessed the market, have decided to avoid committing their funds. . I couldn't walk for quite awhile, and I sure couldn't hang glide anymore,'' he said. ``I really miss that.'' He attended Lancaster's Cedar Avenue School - now closed - until the third grade and then his parents moved to San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. for a time. He graduated from Birmingham High School Birmingham High School is a public coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). in Van Nuys. ``I loved to draw and create even in my early grammar school days,'' he said, ``so when I finished high school, I enrolled in art classes at Pasadena Junior College. I took some more at Mesa JC in San Diego and at Antelope Valley College Antelope Valley College is a comprehensive community college located in Lancaster, California, USA. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Community College District, with a primary service area of 1,945 square miles covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. .'' Two of his paintings were accepted for the recent juried art show at the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery. He has taken several first-place ribbons in shows at the Antelope Valley Allied Arts Association Cedar Centre art shows. Baxter has always liked to garden, and his painting of an old pair of his work boots, complete with boot socks, speaks volumes about tilling the soil to make things grow. He says it's a lot of work but he also enjoys making molds for three-dimensional plaster plaques. Before his hang gliding accident, he spent nine years as an aerospace assembly test technician and then another 10 years in the production department of Sparkletts Water Co. He retired in 1980 from that job. When the opportunity presents itself, he loves hiking into such areas as Devil's Punchbowl Punchbowl, hill, 500 ft (152 m) high, in the city of Honolulu, SE Oahu island, Hawaii. In the bowllike extinct volcanic crater at the summit (reached by a scenic drive) is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, for those killed in World War II. and Red Rock Canyon There are more than 30 parks and canyons in the U.S. named Red Rock Canyon: Parks
Baxter is a single parent of three grown children: Scott Vincent Baxter of Morongo Valley; Paula Marie Czwakel of Gonzales, La.; and Robert Long of Lancaster. He's a member of the Allied Arts Association in Lancaster, High Desert Artists Association of Palmdale, the 40 and Up Singles Club, and J & J Social and Travel Club, for which he serves as a frequent summertime host. He plans to continue to restore the buildings on his midtown property and do as much sculpting sculpting Cosmetic surgery The surgical reshaping of a tissue. See Deep tissue sculpting, Facial sculpting. and painting as he can. He said he also recently took up square dancing again at the Palmdale Senior Center. ``I go from that class on Thursday evenings over to Tony Capko's Jazz Night at the Desert Inn. I figure if I keep up this pace, I'll stay loosened up - if it doesn't kill me first,'' he laughed. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Artist Charles ``Chuck'' Baxter shows off some of his artwork. Bettie Rencoret/Daily News |
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