When Seminole artist and master canoe carver Pedro Zepeda begins a project, he starts by finding just the right tree. Traditionally, a dugout canoe is made from a single cypress log. Walking around Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, Zepeda typically looks for larger logs that have already fallen or died of natural causes. Thanks to logging in the first half of the 20th Century, old-growth cypress are rare. If the tree is too big to pull out of the woods, sometimes he’ll work on it right there in the forest until it’s light enough to move; otherwise, he’ll get someone to help him transport it to his workspace.
Read the full story at Miami New Times.
Photo by Yamila Images, via Miami New Times
