Incredible Chainsaw Wood Carving: Marble is for Pansies

Sculpture and carvings are some of those things I have a love/hate relationship with. The time, the effort, and the incredible detail of an image rendered out of nothing but raw materials and the dedication of an artist astounds me- I can appreciate every steam punk Darth Vader made of pop tabs and the cold, chiseled skin of a classic Greecian athlete frozen in stone. Unfortunately, the terrifying side of art lays in the fact that these days, it’s pretty easy to hot glue a bunch of your garbage together and sell it as conceptual sculpture. Listen boys, I don’t begrudge you your right to drape your soiled gonch over a hockey stick standing in a flower pot and call it art, but the chainsaw wood carving of Scott Dow is truly inspiring in the form and the fortitude required to wield a indiscriminate ripping machine like a precision scalpel.

Chainsaw Wood Carving – Custom Orders Accepted, So Start Planning Your Giant Wooden Naked Lady Now

Growing up, I used to see lots of chainsaw sculptors at fairs and the like. They’d tear a few cuts into a log and all of a sudden there would be a chair, or an awkwardly geometric beaver cleverly left standing in the curls and strips of wood that hid it away a few seconds earlier. But that was really the issue- even watching lumberjack competitions on television, the emphasis was on speed, so while still amazing the resulting designs were always a little rough and unrealized. I never thought much about chainsaw wood carving after that, until I found Animalistic Studios. Scott Dow, the artist and mastermind, is pretty unbelievable at chainsaw wood carving. That may not seem like much to say, but there’s no accurate way to describe some of these. Each is as polished as any piece of fine art but still retains the wild, primal nature of the animals he sculpts… and there’s the fact that he literally tears their semblance from the shattered carcass of a tree with spinning blades and diesel power.

Do you need a hewn arch of salacious oak devils to make a statement to visitors to your property? How about a set of pine angels with Kate Upton’s face to pray for your safe return every time you go out drinking? If you’re interested in one of these rustic-yet-sophisticated art pieces, check out the Animalistic website for more details: Scott is located in Pennsylvania and takes custom orders. Are you a handy sort of guy? I’ll welcome any amateur attempts at a carving a bear with a rusty hatchet while you’re three beers gone… just make sure you send pictures!