A HOWLING HOUND carved by Norton Latourelle.

Perhaps with no surprise, the son of a woodworker took to carving. Every day Norton carved; every day Norton created. Birds, cats, dogs, fish, kitchen art, small animals, orbs… wonderful, whimsical wooden sculptures carved by bandsaws, chainsaws and simple tools. This has been Norton Latourelle’s life-work for the past 50 years. In the early ’90s, Norton and his wife, Marlene, moved to their “dream come true” 40-acre — technically lakefront — property in Shoreham, where they’ve run Norton’s Gallery of Woodcarvings together for the past 33 years.

“It was always my intention to do this, and only this,” Norton said in an interview last week as he looked around the barn-gallery filled with his contemporary American folk art carvings. “It is my life. It’s the motivation in the morning… the thing that charges me up.”

“You rode a wave,” Marlene chimed in.

“There was definitely a wave,” Norton agreed.

The wave was a good one — a story of a successful artist making it doing what he loved among a beloved community in rural Vermont. But like all waves, there’s a curl, a fall and a rejoining of the crested water into the sea.

Now in their mid-70s, Norton and Marlene are done “riding the wave,” and will be closing their woodcarving business for good in mid-October.

“We’re retiring from age and health issues,” Norton said.

“It’s been delightful,” added Marlene, who handled most of the business-side of things, photography and communication. “A very rewarding career.”

Before the gallery closes, however, the couple hopes to find homes for as many of Norton’s carvings as possible; because, as the decades piled on, so did the number of unsold pieces.

“I was prolific,” Norton said simply. “I improved my skills by saying yes to everything… And I do what I wanna do — I don’t have any rules. Freeform — don’t try to be more than that and your pieces will take on a look.”

That signature style of Norton’s work — rough and refined, with a clear understanding of balance, form and the natural world — all made out of local pine, sourced from Book Brothers, a farm in West Haven.

The tricky part is knowing when to stop.

NORTON LATOURELLE’S CARVED bird.

“Marlene is my best determiner,” Norton said. “She has good taste. She can be my second eye.”

As a marketing major from Boston College with a firm appreciation of diversification, Norton’s work goes far beyond the thousands of custom dogs he’s so well known for. An avid bird watcher, Norton has an incredible flock of avian species perched in his gallery. Then there’s the African animals — giraffes, elephants, turtles — the oversized insects, vegetables, flowers. And don’t forget the cupcakes — yes, cupcakes — complete with sprinkles.

“They’re peanut butter cupcakes,” Norton said matter of factly. “They’re my favorite.”

Finally, there are the “Rescue Dogs” who need to be “adopted.”

“They are living here in our ‘Shelter,’ anxiously awaiting their forever home,” reads the gallery’s website promoting the uniqueness of each canine.

“A piece isn’t really finished until it’s home with someone,” said Norton in a video made a couple years ago by his nephew Anthony Thornton, who runs his own photography business in California. “I would like to concentrate on finding homes for those [pieces]… Also to have a say where these things end up… finding the people that those pieces make happy and putting it in their hands.”

Norton continues talking in the video about how he hopes his life journey may “inspire younger artists to realize they can achieve what they dream about, to be themselves, to do just what they want to do and they will find people that admire that and who will support them. I think that is what I’m most grateful for, overall, is the support of those people over 50 years.”

Go show your support for Norton and Marlene’s work on Aug. 24-25, Sept. 14-15, Oct. 5-6, and Oct. 12-13, when the gallery will be open. Or visit their website for more details at nortonsgallery.com. Who knows, you might just come home with a “rescue!”