(WBIR-KODAK) A really good faux artist can create that illusion to a grand scale.
A man in Kodak lives in what looks like a typical house on the outside. But inside you'd think you're in Tuscany, Italy.
"Vineyards, mountains, vignettes, Old World plaster and cobblestone and wood," Donald McCorkle said."It's all made of plaster. Back in Louisiana they call me the Plaster Master."
His real name is Donald McCorkle. He has transformed the walls of his home into a canvas for his creations. He can make plaster look like pretty much any other material.
"I dropped out of school in the 10th grade and I've never had an art class in my life. I just have a God-given talent. At a very early age, 4 or 5 years old, I realized I could draw. And I've been able to draw, paint, sculpt, anything in the world that I wanted," he said.
He starts with a sketch. One in his basement workshop will evolve into a focal point for his foyer. He's run out of walls.
"And so I'm thinking about going back into business," he said.
He's going back into a successful business he thought he had retired from. He's had clients in not only his home state of Louisiana but also in Japan, Honduras, all over.
"I've done stuff that has gone to Disney. Instead of carving something out of marble it will often be done out of fiberglass or plaster or epoxy or something else. Then you just faux it to look like the substance," he said.
Donald McCorkle's specialty is large-scale 3D murals. He makes everything on site.
"Most of the rooms that I do are in condominiums or casinos or restaurants or really upper-end scale homes," he said. "I really enjoy the commercial stuff because it's a challenge. You never know what you're going to be asked to do. And they'll come in and say, Hey, can you do this? and I always say yes and then when they leave, I go, Oh, my, how am I going to do that? But it always works out."
He's re-starting his old business with the same name: Creation thru Imagination. He'll do art on a big scale but scale down the number of commissions he accepts.
"In Louisiana, I had a 5,000-square-foot shop and nine employees and now I am a 66-year-old man working by myself," he said.
It is work he enjoys.
"It's like paying a fisherman to fish. You can't hardly wait to get up in the morning if you've got a project to get started on," he said.
The Plaster Master thinks his talent for creating large scale faux art would be a perfect fit for Dollywood and other attractions in Pigeon Forge.
