Chainsaw artists band together to raise money to fight cancer
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By David Burke | Saturday, May 17, 2008 |
VIDEO: Cutting to Heal
Q-C chainsaw artists band together for this weekend's Chainsaw Carving Rend…
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With the revving of a Stihl chainsaw, wooden chips fly in the air, a smell of freshly cut cherry overpowers all others, and a contant hum is heard.
And the trunk of a tree becomes a parrot perched on top of a margarita glass.
“All the chips are flying, you’ve got the noise and the atmosphere of the smoke,” said Tom Verdon, Davenport, a chainsaw carver.
“Both of us enjoy the actual carving part, but we enjoy having people enjoy what we’re doing while we’re doing it, when it’s out in public,” said Thom Gleich, Davenport. “And when we’re finished, somebody gets to look at it and say, ‘Hey, that’s cool.’ They have a piece of art they can enjoy.”
The chainsaw artists will get their audience and interested onlookers can see the evolution from tree trunk or telephone poll into a piece of art today, at the third annual Chainsaw Carving Rendezvous at the Iowa Machine Shed, Davenport.
About a dozen carvers will gather near the restaurant from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, and “some talented individuals with chainsaws in their hands (will be) making unique pieces of art,” said Gleich, a work experience instructor at Davenport North High School.
Once the pieces are carved, they will be sealed and topcoated and sold in live and silent auctions on June 20, preceding the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life at Brady Street Stadium, Davenport.
Gleich said $7,000 was raised in each of the first two years of the auction.
The event is a memorial for a fellow carver who died of cancer.
Gleich, 59, began hand carving about 25 years ago, and a decade ago decided to use a chainsaw as his main carving instrument.
I said to myself, ‘If you don’t take the leap, you’ll never know if you can do it or not,’” Gleich said.
His first piece, “Majestic Hope,” is on display at Vander Veer Botanical Center in Davenport. Most recently, he completed a sculpture of Iraq War casualty and Davenport North alumnus Katie Soenksen.
Verdon, a gas distributor with Mid-American Energy, has been carving since 2002.
“I haven’t been able to put the saw down since then. It’s kind of an addiction. I’ve been into it ever since,” Verdon said.
They do their work in a shed that Gleich rents in a farm northwest of Davenport. He teaches four weeks worth of lessons in chainsaw carving every October, and today will propose a name and logo for his fellow artists in the Quad-City Chainsaw Carvers.
Gleich has made pieces as large as 12 feet high and as small as a wooden boot he can fit in the palm of his hand.
He said he enjoys chainsaw carving over other methods.
“It’s physically demanding and takes a lot out of you. But the process from start to finish can be a lot quicker,” he said. “You can do something small and intricate with your hand tools and it can take a while to do it. But you can take a saw and start off with a piece and in an hour or two you can be finished with the carving part. You get a quicker response to getting out there and doing something.”
Time flies with the same consistency of the sawdust.
“You get so engrossed in it you have a hard time setting things down,” Gleich said.
There’s no margin of error for mistakes, Verdon said.
“You can always make firewood out of it,” he said.
“The carpenters always say, ‘Measure twice, cut once.’ It is tedious at first,” Gleich said.
Rookie carvers are far too timid when they get the saw in their hands, he said.
“I say, ‘Stop piddling around and get aggressive,’” Gleich said.
Although there are variations on a theme — the parrot on the margarita is popular among fellow members of the Quad-City Parrothead Club, of which both are members — each piece is unique.
“You can go to Wal-Mart or something and pick up something, but somebody else is going to get the same thing,” Gleich said. “These are individual items, one of a kind.”
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.
IF YOU GO
What: American Cancer Society Chainsaw Carving Rendezvous
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat. May 17, 2008
Where: Outside Iowa Machine Shed, 7250 Northwest Blvd., Davenport
How much: Free
Information: (563) 355-2103
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