I recently realized that it's been several years since any noticeable up-dates on this web-site have appeared, so I've been learning how to add & make changes on my own, with help from a friend of course! It's a slow learning curve but so important because what I do is constantly changing & evolving. This page will be a place for my personal notes; look-out it's Dear Diary!
Much of my business comes from this site and I think it can be helpful for somebody to know, or better understand the process from my perspective. Some of the projects I work on are smaller and less involved, others are big and take more planning, so the word "routine" never quite fits. Big, small, or in-between, I approach each new project with the same goal; make it nicer than the last one. A common question is "Are you one of those people that's never satisfied with what you do?" Actually no, there are some carvings I like better than others,, but for the most part it's more of a feeling like "oh, I can do better". This is the under-lying current that pushes me along.
Chainsaw carving has been such an amazing journey that continues to un-fold almost daily. Beyond some of the obvious benefits like being a self employed artist,, meeting new & different people is definitely the best part. Getting to know the person I am carving for, even in the smallest way, holds the best clue's I could hope for. Some of the places where I carve are big & extravagant, others are small & modest, but they all have one thing in common; a love for their trees. On-site carvings can give them a second chance at life after they cease to exist in their natural state, and this takes on a new meaning when you hear things like "Our dad planted this tree". One time after I had finished carving a giant apple into an old apple tree stump the owner shared this story; "This was my grandparents house. My Pap died when I was real young and though I hardly remember him, my clearest memory is sitting under this tree with him while he peeled apples and talked to us."
Other stump carvings are less dramatic, but still unique in different ways. Often times a tree was planted in a certain area for landscaping purposes and over the years becomes a "fixture" on the property. Rather than remove the tree entirely and grind the roots out, a carving can provide an opportunity to re-build the area. Sometimes they are in a public, or prominent location, but mostly they seem to end-up in more private places, somebody's personal space. I enjoy them all...*
more soon......