Situated side-by-side in 20-by-20-foot work spaces at the rodeo grounds in Skirvin Park, 15 professional chainsaw carvers got started Thursday on a 19-hour competition to come up with award-winning creations.
The Philomath Frolic and Rodeo’s newest attraction brought out curious onlookers on the celebration’s opening day in the hour prior to the rodeo. The crowds are sure to grow bigger on Friday and Saturday as each piece further develops into what many describe as stunning works of art.
Beyond the sound of chainsaws, you can hear the excitement in Chris Workman’s voice as he talks about this new event, which he calls the Oregon Open Chainsaw Carving Competition. He’s been envisioning such a show coming to the Frolic and Rodeo for the past three or four years. And now it’s happening.
“I’m definitely approaching this as the first of many years,” said Workman, who is part of the Frolic and Rodeo’s board. “Everything that we’re doing is looking at how do we get it out in front of people this year and make some improvements and tweaks for next year? I’m already looking at things for next year to do differently.”
For now, he’s enjoying the show. And he hopes folks in the region also come out to enjoy it with him.
“I hope Philomath, Corvallis and Benton County folks will come out and support the carvers and show appreciation for the work that they’re doing and the art form,” Workman said. “It definitely feels very Philomath-oriented with our timber heritage.”
George Kenny, who runs a chainsaw carving school in a small town on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, organizes the competitions. Kenny was on the site Wednesday evening when chainsaw carvers started showing up in Philomath to check in and draw numbers for their logs. This initial process can be extremely important for what the carvers may attempt to design.
“You don’t know what the logs are until you get here so you have to have a Plan A and a Plan B,” Kenny said. “So it could be completely different from what you thought you’d be able to fit into your piece.”
Many of the carvers have a sort of specialty area — wildlife, trees, bears and so on.
“One of the criteria for judging is degree of difficulty,” Kenny said. “So you don’t want to do something that’s just stoic, that’s just going to stand there. They’re going to do something that shows action … something that creates that ‘wow’ factor so that when you look at it, you go ‘holy crap’ and you just can’t believe it.”
Added Kenny, “You’re going to see some of that here because these guys are some of the best around.”
The chainsaw carving circuit around the Pacific Northwest attracts a lot of the same competitors to the same events. Friendships have formed, of course, but that doesn’t mean they’re not competing hard to come out on top.
“It’s a very tight rivalry but they help each other,” Kenny said. “It’s serious stuff with bragging rights … It was intense at the last show because the caliber of the guys was unsurpassed.”
Kenny was referring to last weekend’s Sedro-Woolley (Washington) Loggerodeo.
“The only way you can get into the Sedro show is having won a show, so these are all past winners of other big events,” Kenny explained. “So there’s a lot of rivalry and the quality of the stuff that’s produced — because they know they have to up their game — is intense. They’re doing stuff that you just can’t even believe was done. They’re very, very talented.”
Many of the competitors that squared off at the Sedro-Woolley are also competing here in Philomath — Nick Bielby, Constantine Morari, Adrian Bois, Wade Lapp, Chris Foltz, Ryan Anderson, Mark Colp and Alex Pricob.
Bielby, a carver out of Port Angeles, Washington, won the Sedro-Woolley’s People’s Choice Award.
Others competing in Philomath include Garrett Aries, Joey Wallace, Porter Foltz, Ian Rakestraw, Tristan Hemons, Joe Hernandez and Kenny himself.
“They’re always trying to one up each other and they encourage one another and they talk smack with one another,” Workman said. “But they really admire each other’s work and are always working to make each one better and looking for original pieces and new concepts and new designs.”
Kenny, who not only coordinates the event but also serves as the auctioneer at the final day’s sale, has been involved with organizing shows around the Pacific Northwest for the past 20 years. He calls the carvers, he finds the wood and he brings it all together.
As a result, Workman connected with Kenny to help bring the show to Philomath. Initially, Kenny thought the competition at the Frolic would need to wait a year — putting it all together takes time. But the stars aligned with the dates and the location.
“It just so happens that it worked perfectly because several of the guys had just competed in Sedro-Woolley and several had to drive by here to go home,” Kenny said, adding that the timing of the Thursday through Saturday schedule also fit.
“So I was able to garner 15 guys — I mean, top-notch guys,” he said.
Workman hopes the Philomath event becomes an official stop on the circuit.
Although an accomplished carver, Kenny rarely competes in the events — although he is throwing his hat in the ring here in Philomath. You might say he’s a sort of mentor to many of those on the circuit.
“My primary thing is to stay pretty tight with the guys so I know where they’ve been and I know the awards they’ve won and what the new techniques are and the tools,” he said. “At home, I have a shop … I teach the newer generation of guys to do this. Several of the guys over the years have taken our classes and have gone on to compete and win.”
Starting with an eight-foot cedar log section, the carvers got in nearly eight hours of work on their main pieces Thursday. They will continue to work from 8-11:15 a.m. and 1-5:30 p.m. Friday and then finish them up from 7:30-11 a.m. Saturday.
Mixed in with the main carve, the daily schedule also features quick carve competitions. On Friday, quick carves will take place at 11:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. and on Saturday, there will be a final one at 11:15 a.m.
On Saturday, a live auction and awards ceremony will take place from 12:30-2 p.m.
“The main pieces — they can either sell it or take it home and put it in an auction themselves,” Kenny said. “There’s a couple of guys from out of state and maybe they don’t have the means of getting it back home so they’ll auction it or sell it.”
Admission to the event is free.
Said Workman, “We’re not charging to watch but we’re hoping that there’s an appreciation for what we’re doing and that people open up their pocketbooks on Saturday at 12:30 for the auction and buy everything that they carve today.”
In fact, with the timber town theme of the downtown streetscapes project, Workman shared what he hopes to see happen.
“My secret hope is that a lot of these pieces that get carved this weekend stay here in Philomath and that our homeowners, business owners and some of our clubs see the value in these pieces and buy them and keep them here and have them on display for years to come,” he said. “That’s my secret hope but of course I can’t control that. All I can do is invite the carvers to come and invite the public to come.”
