Raymond George Chicoine, 88, poses for a photo in front of his display of pine cone art in his garage workshop, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020.
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 | 2 a.m.
The coronavirus pandemic kept Ray Chicoine at home when the active great-grandfather would have been out and about, riding his bicycle a few times a week to the gym, driving his camper van to southern Utah or visiting Nellis Air Force Base for the amenities offered to retired airmen like himself.
But Chicoine, 87, would not let himself be bored. He is a doer, a tinkerer, a repurposer. When he was picking up after his dogs in the backyard of his southwest valley home in late March, just as lockdown took hold, he looked at a windfall of pine cones from the tree that towers between his lilacs and his vegetable garden. He’d raked up countless pine cones before but this time, “I said, ‘I wonder what that looks like cut in half.’”
He cleaved it lengthwise with a saw and marveled at the exposed, curved chambers branching off the central stem with precise geometry.
“I said, ‘ooh, that’s pretty.’”
Nature creates art, and so does Chicoine.
Since his first pine cone dissection, he has shaped, painted and glued eight pieces of folk art on scrap wood backing at his lived-in garage workbench. He started with an owl, layering scaly wedges and strips of pine cones to create the texture of puffed-out feathers, and shaping twigs under hot water for talons.
Next came flowers; a Golden Knights logo; carefully placed slices and slivers surrounding the message “Black Lives Matter,” Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” phrase and rainbow tinted pieces in support of the gay community; a cross over an image of the Virgin Mary in a niche; and an “I love u” for his wife, Jeannine, to celebrate their 65 years of marriage. A patriotic scene will come next.
He doesn’t know what to do with his creations. He just knew he had to keep his hands on something while there was little else to do during a pandemic, especially for a senior.
“Sitting in the house, twiddling your thumbs, will drive you god’darn crazy,” he said.
The Chicoines have lived in Las Vegas for more than 30 years, mostly in a house up the street from their current home. Ray admired the house he’s in now and wanted the panoramic views of downtown and the Strip from its expansive balcony. He snapped it up as soon as it hit the market 12 years ago.
His former house didn’t have a view of the city lights. Nor did it have a pine tree.
The pine cone collages are the latest in a lifetime of handcrafts. Through the years, Chicoine has restored classic cars, painted Western scenes on leather, carved miniature rocking horses with swinging legs that make clip-clopping sounds, and scavenged costume jewelry and string lights to make an illuminated three-dimensional plaque of a Christmas tree. All for his own amusement.
A sedentary lifestyle is not his nature.
Chicoine saw the world in his 23 years in the Air Force, from duty stations during peacetime, missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and as the chief flight engineer for Bob Hope’s 1970 USO tour. Chicoine separated from the military in 1974 and worked for the postal service for a few years before retiring due to nerve damage from handling Agent Orange. He then gave his time as a community volunteer.
These days, he heads to his sun-drenched backyard and harvests tomatoes. And pine cones.
“A man has got to be doing something,” Jeannine said.
