utut1 said:

In the world of Amy Maddox, Navy midshipmen and Army cadets are mere pawns. And they’re headed for battle in perpetuity on a gridiron of her making.

Ms. Maddox, 33, of Arnold, is known around town for her intricately carved chess sets depicting the annual Army-Navy football battle.

But Ms. Maddox, a college student who ultimately wants to teach art therapy, also carves competition-level birds, folk art pieces like Caribbean Santas and weathered watermen, and jewelry.

“I’ve been told that if I remove them from the window, people get disturbed,” said Sandra Pezzoli, owner of Gallery 1683 in Annapolis, which sells many of Ms. Maddox’s pieces. “We are considered the gallery with the chess sets. They’re intricate and have a lot of personality.”

Ms. Pezzoli’s been showing the artist’s work ever since her gallery opened more than three years ago. She became a fan after seeing some of Ms. Maddox’s work at an Eastern Shore gallery prior to that, and started buying them just for herself.

“I think with the folk art pieces, it’s just the whimsy of it,” Ms. Pezzoli said. “The joy that she has making them (comes through).”

Ms. Maddox does her work at her parents’ home, both upstairs in a living room filled with plenty of her creations on shelves, and in a basement workshop that partly resembles a wooden wildlife sanctuary because of all the carvings of birds and sea creatures on display.

When she works, her two springer spaniels, Otter and Hana, are never too far from her side.

“I like all of it,” said artist Jane Ferguson of Arnold, who also exhibits at Gallery 1683. “I think it’s just fabulous. It’s darling, it’s striking, it’s creative – and I wish I could do it.”

Ms. Ferguson said the lines of some of Ms. Maddox’s pieces look simple, but that masks the true complexity ofher creations. Getting things to look that effortless takes a great amount of talent, she explained.

Ms. Maddox said she’s constantly trying to improve, looking for new sources of inspiration and “pushing the envelope” of her carving skills. For the birds she enters in competitions, this means getting them to look “lighter than air,” and alive.

For her folk art pieces, this means thinking up a new twist on an old theme, like having Santa dressed for the beach. Fans of her work appreciate her sense of humor in these types of pieces almost as much as the skill it took to create them

“You don’t meet many women who have that folk art style,” said John Day, a Cecil County bird carver who’s familiar with Ms. Maddox’s work. “It’s very different.”