Robert Lagasse

Although Robert Lagasse was educated as a Mechanical Engineer, he has always had a desire for creative endeavors using his hands. As a boy he spent many hours in his grandfather's garage workshop making a variety of things from pieces of scrap wood. During his high school years he won several awards from the Fisher Body Craftsman Guild for designing and carving scale model automobiles. In addition to his engineering endeavors he studied architecture, designed commercial and residential buildings and created architectural renderings for those designs. Now retired, he was the Managing Director of the American Clock and Watch Museum and is also a retired Army Officer having completed 24 years of Reserve service. Bob has created a variety of birds and animals in wood.

The primary interest and the majority of these unique pieces are aquatic in nature, with a particular fascination for whales, dolphins and sharks. He has learned much about his subjects through travel and water related activities including scuba diving. He has had experiences from the Caribbean to Hawaii and Alaska, studying his subjects in their natural habitat. Although he has created some of his work while away, most of his work is done at home. Bob does not view his work as intense, and instead finds that the time spent on his creations is calming and therapeutic. Lectures using sample pieces have been given to interested groups including a gathering of interior decorators in our nation's capital.

Bob's work has been on display in a number of locations from Hawaii to the East Coast. Over the years, many of his pieces have been accepted for the Mystic International, a world-wide showing of nautical art, at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport. He has received multiple awards for his pieces from wildlife expositions and has been the recipient of an Award of Excellence at the Mystic International, as well as winning First Place in the Mystic Woodcarvers Club.