Sean traces his love of the outdoors to a series of moments in his childhood starting with a day when he and his friends spotted a pair of hawks circling above a hill in the southern end of Syracuse. They marveled at the hawk’s ability to keep afloat without once flapping their wings. He and his friends tracked the hawks movement for hours, so engrossed in their flight patterns they didn’t want to miss a movement.
Family outings identifying wild ramps and leeks encouraged Sean to critically notice the abundance of his natural surroundings, and made him eager to broaden his knowledge of plant identification. Sean attended the Tracker School at 18, followed by a Bachelor’s of Science in conservation biology at The College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. With this background of interests, Sean pursued his fascination with outdoor education, and primitive skills through books and videos, teaching himself bow carving, and tracking.
Sean’s number one interest is archery and bow-making. Sean finds that the process of bow-making allows students to connect more deeply and fully to the materials and their surrounding environment.
“If you struggle with a skill for a while, you invest a lot of emotion…and at some point you start to love the materials for their own sake.”
He deeply believes that the process and practice of creating your own tools; choosing, carving, and shaping the wood creates a deep love for the tree, and the environment that nurtured the tree. Each object created by an individual, with materials they harvested, and hours of their own time spent crafting, are an personal interpretation of themselves and the natural materials they are using.
Sean has been an instructor at Primitive Pursuits for a number of years. During academic terms he is a regular with our homeschool, preschool, and adult programs. During summer camps he can generally be found at our specialty camps, guiding a knife over wood during Bow-making, or helping students learn proper form in Forest Archer.
Sean lives in Ithaca with his wife and daughter and continues to share his love of carving and wilderness education with everyone around him.