(1908 - 2003)
Tom Rector worked for many years for the Harrison’s, at the Harrison farm for the family and at the Harrison mill and later Harrison's Building Supplies.The family said he was a good worker and a gentleman.Tom Rector didn't start carving until the age of 82, but his work quickly found the hearts of folk art collectors throughout North America and Europe. His work was first exhibited in 1992, and he was later invited to participate in the annual Nova Scotia Folk Art Festival.
Tom's subjects included stick or "crotch" men, carved from the natural crotch formation of branches, horses, moose, bear, fish, birds and the occasional bird tree. He also sometimes carved oxen or horses pulling wagons. Although he had slowed down considerably, he was still doing some carving as late as 2002, the year before his death, and some of his work was posthumously included in an exhibition of Cumberland County artists held in 2003.
Ref: Nova Scotia Folk Art Festival Society, A Joyous Vision - Contemporary Folk Art in Nova Scotia (1995)
