[Chainsaw sculpting is] a chance to work with your hands, actually labor and then get into the fine details of things … You’re not only creating a piece of artwork; you’re putting in a day’s work and creating a piece of artwork.
I’ve always been pretty artistic. I became friends with one of the elders at my local church … and he [said], “Have you thought about chainsaw carving before?” … He actually got a log for me, and I bought a chainsaw and I tried out my first one … If I can draw something, then I’m just using a chainsaw as my pencil.
Most of the time, I have a general idea of what I envision the end result to look like. But you’re working with a piece of wood, maybe it has a knot on [one] side [or] maybe it has a rotten spot in the middle … You kind of let the wood dictate what’s going to happen and where the piece is going to go.
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In any piece of art that [I] create, the best part is the anticipation of what it’s going to look like when it’s finished … You’re working throughout this process, and you don’t know what the end result is going to look like, and then when you get to the end, you can look back and [see] … all those pieces come together.
I love to see my pieces all around town and in our community. The most recent [carving] I did … was purchased by the owner of a local restaurant, and he put it outside his restaurant. It’s cool when you’re on the street corner and you can see that piece and know … you’re contributing some artwork to the community.