Former carpenter picks up chainsaw, carves a new career

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - As he rotated a small chainsaw, wood chips fell like snow flakes in the winter air.

The carved snout of a bear soon poked from within a large red oak tree, the oak's former mass reduced to a nearly 30-foot wooden obelisk.

'œThis will be a 12-foot grizzly bear inset into the tree, with a large eagle farther up the tree,'ť said Indiana artist Chris G. Trotter, standing atop an 8-foot platform.

'œI'll need more scaffolding to get up there,'ť he said, pointing to the top. Instead, a bucket truck was used to elevate him.

Trotter began his carving Feb. 9 along Rosehill Road, about 8/10th of a mile east of Rosedale Road in Vigo County's Otter Creek Township.

Property owner Tim Curley commissioned Trotter for the unique carving.

The tree, Curley said, was to be taken down as its limbs extended over Rosehill Road, threatening power lines. Duke Energy commissioned the tree be removed, but Curley told the tree trimmer to leave the tall section.

'œMy brother Ed suggested I do something with the tree and my niece, (Layne Curley) said she new of a guy in Brown County who is an artist, so I called Trotter,'ť said Curley, a former Terre Haute police officer and former Vigo County Councilman. Curley retired after also working as assistant director of public safety at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

'œI think this (carving) can be here for probably 100 years, as long as we take care of it,'ť Curley said. 'œIt is just something unique and different.'ť

Trotter's artistic interests began when he was about 21 and working as an interior trim carpenter. He would bring wood pieces home and started whittling. That was the start of a 10-year period where he honed his carving skills.

'œI couldn't let go of it. I was almost OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) with carving,'ť he said.

Then in 2007, amid a national housing market crash, his finish carpentry job splintered.

'œI was like what am I going to do? I thought, I'm just going to wing it, 'ť he said,

He decided Nashville in Brown County, Indiana, dubbed the art colony of the Midwest.

There he met Frank Andrew 'œAndy'ť Rogers, a Nashville fixture who owned many downtown commercial properties and known to provide a helping hand to local artists.

'œHe has since passed, but Rogers was somebody who watched after inspiring artists and helped them out. He gave me a shop, for my carvings, for a good price,'ť Trotter said.

'œI started using knives and a rubber mallet to make carvings, but I was not going fast enough. I couldn't make enough to sell and make money to pay the rent,'ť he said. 'œI thought I have to get faster, so I got a chainsaw. I didn't know what I was doing, didn't even have the right chainsaw.'ť

The self-taught artist began learning chainsaw carving techniques from people he met and by studying chainsaw crafts.

'œIt has been 16 years since I started the shop in Nashville. I have been chainsawing for 14 years of that,'ť Trotter said.

It's a skill that has transformed the artist, especially in the past three years, as he's expanded into on-site carvings across the Midwest.

'œLast year, I did like 70 on-site carvings and the year before that I did like 55,'ť Trotter said. 'œI have done carvings on Mackinac Island, in Louisville, and in Nashville, Tennessee.'ť

Now, at age 46, Trotter said he feels that he is no longer 'œa starving artist.'ť

'œIt has been a journey. I don't get a lot of vacations, and I am still working my way up. It takes a while and you have to meet the right people. I pretty much was a starving artist until three years ago,'ť he said.

'œIf I do big things at the shop, it is so backbreaking to have to move them around all the time. When I was younger I could do that, but now I prefer to go some place and just leave the heavy stuff there,'ť he said.

Trotter needed four days to complete his assignment along Rosehill Road.

When he's not outdoors carving, Trotter still maintains his artist shop, named Wooden Wonders at 63 South Jefferson Street in Nashville, but he lives north in Morgantown. He can be reached at 317-384-4091 and can also be found on Facebook.

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Source: Tribune-Star