Unique woodwork by Ness due at Art Walk
From our weekly issue dated June 4, 2008
'Sonny’ Ness at work on the lathe
When I caught up with DeLos “Sonny” Ness, he’d just spent the morning helping his grandson move into a new home.
It’s an unusual activity for most 85-year-olds, but Ness demonstrates the enthusiasm and vitality of a man half his age.
He first showed me around the property, the gardens of flowers and vegetables – which have produced asparagus since April – surrounded by dozens of young oak trees, all of which he’s planted himself. A 40-ton pile of rocks sits off to the side, the result of clearing the land.
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He and his wife, Darlene, an accomplished fabric artist, moved to Illinois Valley in 2000 to live closer to their daughter, Kathy Lombardo and her family.
The relative newcomers, to the valley, built a unique new home from Rastra. This space-age material is a combination of concrete and ground, recycled Styrofoam, offering superior insulation. Inside the spacious living room is a comfortable 70 degrees, even when it’s more than 100 outside.
Ness showed the entertainment center he designed and built. One panel is decorated with a music staff of scrolled wood forming the first four notes of September Song. It was chosen for the month he married his high-school sweetheart 65 years ago. The room is lined with beautiful lidded bowls and desk organizers; which he’s created from as many as seven different woods.
'Sonny’ Ness with a couple of his finished
He milled the wood into lumber, cut and glued the pieces together into blocks of wood, then turned them on a lathe into elegant shapes.
“I’m big on scraps,” he said. “We were taught not to waste anything.”
He and his wife are children of the Great Depression, an era that taught their generation thrift and value. Their South Dakota home was part of the Dust Bowl of the era.
“Nothing would grow but Russian thistle,” he recalls. “Some years we bailed that up for cattle feed.”
“Sonny” learned to fly when he was 14, and has flown more than 30 different aircraft. Drafted into World War II, he took U.S. Air Force pilot training, but was sent into Europe, then Japan as a combat medic as the war wound down. Later, as part of the occupation of Japan, he rode troop trains through bombed-out cities.
“We were like mushrooms – fed B.S. and kept in the dark,” he laughs.
His connection to wood began at a young age. He created his own toys when he was 6 years old. As a high school student, he trimmed trees for 10-cents an hour, and returned to this field after the war. He became a foreman for the Davey Tree Expert Co., training young men to climb trees using ropes and 10-foot ladders stacked as high as 40 feet.
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“We couldn’t use spurs because that would damage the trees,” he said. “There weren’t any cherry pickers or chain saws then. We had to use two-man cross-cut saws,” he explains.
He went on to become an arborist for the city of Scottsdale in Arizona; retiring after 17 years. A patch on his denim jacket reads, “Certified Arborist - International Society of Arboriculture - Western Chapter.” Between stints as an arborist, he and Darlene variously owned a motel in Arizona, developed a 50-acre ranch near Red Bluff, Calif., and then another property in Cave Creek, Ariz., while raising four daughters and seeing them off to their own marriages and children.
Their lives and attitudes reflect the joy of living and satisfaction of accomplishment.
Along the way, “Sonny” has enjoyed fashioning toys, furniture, bowls and even “joke” items of wood. He showed a bank with a mousetrap in the floor rigged to explode when a coin is dropped.
“Every time I see a new piece of wood, I get a new experience,” he explains.
DeLos “Sonny” Ness is the featured artist for June’s Second Friday Art Walk. The public is invited to meet him and enjoy his wood creations at Illinois Valley Visitor Center between 5 and 8 p.m. on June 13.
