Wilson’s knack is a work of art

The word knack is defined as an acquired or natural skill at performing a task.

Knack has many meanings but the ones that jump out most are gift, ability, technique and art.

Army veteran Lue Wilson has an uncanny gifted ability of using a creative technique to make art.

In simple terms, Wilson has a knack for applying art to items before he even picks it up.

Wilson sees things differently than most. It’s a combination of imagination, talent and skill.

Creative ability is the skill and talent to use our imagination to create and solve.

The items of choice for Wilson’s creations are rocks both large and small.

He normally finds the iron ore rocks in a creek bed close to his house but has on occasion found some away from home.

Wilson can see what he wants to put on the rock before he grabs it out of its arranged space.

Every once in a while he’ll carve or chip pieces for everything to come together but most of the time he just uses what is there when he picks it up.

Normally when his mind sets what he wants to put on the rock he can finish it in minutes.

His mediums range from fingernail polish to gorilla glue to glitter.

A business owner in Jefferson found out about his special skill, called him and asked if he could make a face of Bigfoot for them since Jefferson is known as the Bigfoot Capital of Texas.

Wilson’s Bigfoot art and several other pieces are on display there in the Jefferson museum.

The 76-year-old veteran has lived in Linden for nearly 47 years and started doing this hobby in 2013 when he was diagnosed with Brugada Syndrome or Certain Death Syndrome.

This disease is not found in African Americans so the doctor told him he’s not 100 percent African American.

Wilson began tracing his genealogy and found out his great, great, great grandfather was a Cherokee Indian who made his way to this part of the United States on the Trail of Tears. His name was Ephraim Wilson.

After spending time in Indian Territory, which was in Oklahoma, he was freed and made his way to Louisiana.

At some point he moved to Texas and is laid to rest in Macedonia Cemetery in Jefferson.

Wilson thinks it is neat that his talent coincides with how Indians use to paint on cave walls with what they had to work with.

Wilson doesn’t sell his creation but likes to give them away to those who really take a liking to certain pieces.

He even donated one of his pieces to the Journal-Sun. The rock is somewhat in the shape of Texas.

On one side he has Texas spelled out in stickers and on the other side he fashioned the face of a cow.

Wilson sees his works of art as a mere hobby but others see his works of art as what they truly are – creations from a talented artist who has an uncanny gifted ability of using a creative technique to make art.