ERIK WARREN has only has a limited ability to express himself in words, but he has found a true gift in his talent with a very unusual artistic tool, a scroll saw.

He was born in 1971 in Hays, Kansas and early in his life he exhibited repetitive autistic behavior. His mother noticed he didn’t snuggle next to her like other children did. So as he grew up, his parents encouraged his artistic pursuits including working with loomed fabrics and creating wooden objects with power tools. Jim Warren, Erik’s father, focused on what Erik could do, not what he couldn’t and that led to the discovery of Erik’s talent with a powered scroll saw around age 15. He started making decorative crosses and ornaments but progressed into intricate cutout portraits, which are carried for sale in local gift shops and restaurants in western Kansas.

Erik lives with his father and his brother, Jason, and works nearly every day with his designs on his scroll saw. His father Jim reports that Erik, despite all his many hours working with his hands in close proximity to a moving blade, has only nicked himself once.

See www.erikoriginals.com