by Myrt Bloyd Schnelle (Author)
A month ago when I was praying, I asked God what could I do for you? Maybe a strange question, but I was feeling the avenue of space in my life. I now was over 80 and the words of my sister were echoing in my ears when she shared that when you get to be 80 everything begIns to crumble. What could I do? The years of working in the church activities with the youth, the camp, and those overnites in the Family Life Center and even kitchen duty was no longer do-able for me. I have been reduced to working only in my yard and that with the aid of a Kawsaki mule to carry my tools. I have found my knees are the only way to pull weeds, and I have even accomplished raking sitting in a chair. So Lord what can I do for you? I do not consider myself a Bible scholar, but through the years of being a player in God's creation I have come to an understanding of God, thus comes the words from my heart in a little story book titled GOD AND I. I shall share my belief of God, Angels, Death and my trail of understanding God's wisdom.
Author Biography
Myrt Bloyd Schnelle quickly states, "she is a novice wood carver, poet and writer but an experienced player in God's creation. It is her love for God's creation that she paints word pictures and carves his creatures." Myrt Schnelle spent her childhood on a farm in northern Kansas. Summers were spent riding a pony with a collie dog and fishing in creeks. She often watched the family's small herd of sheep which provided her with hours to watch God's wild creatures. After marriage and a career, she and her husband retired to beautiful Texoma Lake in Oklahoma. Myrt spent much of her time walking the shorelines with her Boston's and chocolate Lab, and she soon discovered every trip became driftwood gathering time. Some driftwood treasures were so large it took the help of a 4 wheeler and golf cart trailer to get them home, others were so small they fit in her pocket. Driftwood became a fascination. Each piece was viewed with the thought "with a little help this looks like" . . . A little whittling, a little paint and a lot of love came her first caricatures; a roadrunner, a wild turkey, an eagle and the list goes on. With each new carving, her techniques improved, and new animals evolved, each becoming a treasure to her. Her carvings are buffalo, deer, cougars, raccoons, water birds, hummingbirds and the most beautiful of all the butterfly. Which Myrt explains soars with beautiful wings and joins the earth to heaven. Then a collector of Indian art gave her a Kachina doll . . . it was a new avenue, a new dimension for her wood carvings. Each one of her whimsical Kachina dolls were formed from cottonwood roots which had been eroded, broken away from the tree, and washed down arroyos around shoreline of Texoma Lake which divides Oklahoma and Texas shorelines. Originally Kachina Dolls were an unusual form of religious folk art which were characteristic of each Indian Tribe. Among the Hopi Indians the wooden images are carved to represent the men who dance in costume, mask and paint. Each wearing the actual items as feathers, furs, shells, leather, and metal materials. All of Myrt's Kachina dolls were signed "old pale face woman" before they left her studio, which was a Kawasaki Mule, but it held all the tools she needed. A few sharp knives. Myrt's first book was "SILENCED SONG, she knew the music but forgot the words". Two Haki poetry books, "CLEANED WINDOWS" and "KEEPING THE WAVES UPON THE SAND" have also been published.