Local illustrator Joe Servello holds a woodcarving entitled “The Philosopher.” Discovered while packing up Servello’s former residence, the woodcarving was completed in collaboration with local multi-media artists Kevin Kutz and Tom McCarthy. Courtesy photo

After a lifetime of making the world a more beautiful place through his art, local illustrator Joe Servello will use his final work to give back to the community.

The piece, a small woodcarving of a mysterious, scholarly subject entitled “The Philosopher,” was completed in collaboration with local multi-media artists Kevin Kutz and Tom McCarty.

According to ArtsAltoona Vice President Kathy Muller, the unfinished carving was discovered earlier this year while friends helped pack up Servello’s former residence.

Servello, 93, now lives at Garvey Manor in Hollidaysburg, as muscular degeneration has reduced his eyesight and capacity to create new art since mid-2024.

“I’ve known (Servello) since the mid-1980s. He was a friend of a friend and I bought his art,” Muller said, “so I’ve known him a long time.”

Muller reconnected with Servello in 2022 to enlist his services to design a portion of a family coloring book being produced by ArtsAltoona, which featured a number of prominent local artists.

This project sparked a renewed friendship between Muller and Servello, which culminated in the documentary “Not Your Average Joe” that was released in April 2024, which Muller directed.

The 45-minute documentary is streaming on https://video.wpsu.org/, containing a wealth of information on Servello’s life and career in Blair County.

“I got to know (Kutz) through the documentary, his relationship with (Servello) as an artist and the influence of Joe’s art on his art,” Muller said. “So whenever I saw the woodcut that wasn’t done, his name came to mind — that he would be able to help us finish it.”

Partnering for a cause

Kutz first met Servello in 2023, when their work was displayed together at an art exhibition hosted by Picture Perfect Frame & Gallery II in Hollidaysburg.

“I’d always heard about (Servello) and seen his work, and had a respect for not just the work, but him … so I kind of admired him from a distance until the opportunity came about to do a show with his work,” Kutz said.

After the exhibition, Kutz and Servello kept in contact, with Kutz visiting Servello several times over the past two years, where they would connect over a shared love for art.

Kutz was initially skeptical about coming on board when Muller initially requested his assistance in completing the project, but eventually changed his mind.

“When I talked to (Servello) about it and saw he was excited about the idea of us finishing the carving, that was enough to motivate me to go ahead and start gnawing away at what he had begun,” Kutz said.

Kutz then called up his friend Tom McCarty, a woodcarver from Ebensburg, to expand the duo into a trio.

“He knew (Servello) a little bit as well, and I just thought it would be cool to get him to carve a little bit of this as well,” Kutz said.

It took approximately two months of work, and several rounds of revisions, to bring the piece to its final, print-ready quality.

Due to his ongoing health problems, Servello was unable to participate in the physical process of finishing his lost piece, but Kutz spoke to him often to get his advice and hear his vision on how he wanted the final product to look.

When the piece was completed, Servello gave the team his approval.

“I’m honored, not just for my ego, but for the privilege of being able to have that opportunity to finish it,” Kutz said.

Woodcut art is traditionally used to make prints, Kutz said, so it seemed a natural extension of the project to use the final work to produce a run of limited-edition prints and shirts featuring the design.

After carving the desired image in relief onto the wooden surface, artists apply a thin layer of ink, then press another medium against the wood in order to create copies of the design.

“It’s the earliest form of printmaking,” he said.

Lightning Bug Gift Co. in Hollidaysburg will make the shirts, while Kutz will make all of the prints by hand using 13-by-9-inch sheets of rice paper with black ink.

“There’s an adrenaline rush when you ink the thing, and when you lift the paper up you have no idea what’s going to come out, so it’s quite gratifying,” he said. “And I’m quite happy it will go to the cause.”

Proceeds from the sale of both will be used to support programming at ArtsAltoona.

Interested parties can preorder prints and shirts of “The Philosopher” online at https://artsaltoona.org/philosopher until Oct. 20

Both shirts and prints will be sold in limited quantities, Muller said, with preorders closed after the October deadline.

“We think this would create huge demand, as there is a particular group of people who are interested in (Servello’s) work,” she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.