Chainsaw Art

THE chainsaw seems an unlikely tool for making art. But along Route 1 in the upper-reaches of coastal Maine, Ray Murphy uses nothing else, taming the saw to create a host of sylvan inspired pieces—black bears, squirrels and eagles—and a scruffy fisherman with a pipe, a bestseller. So unlikely is the association between carving and the chainsaw that Murphy adamantly refers to himself as a sawyer. His tool of choice prevented him from entering a woodcarving exhibition a few decades ago. The grudge persists. Yet the chainsaw does well for Murphy; he’s sold thousands of pieces and puts on a live chainsaw art and entertainment show. The programme advertises numerous unrivalled feats, including sawing numbers one to 17 on a toothpick and the alphabet on a pencil. A few of these are recognised by "Ripley’s Believe it or Not", which granted Ray’s roadside trade some national notoriety. It seemed only natural that More Intelligent Life caught up with him over a can of Pepsi in his sawdust-encrusted shop...more