Chain Saw Artist Turns Tree Trunks into Treasures

VINTON - A ginkgo tree now looks like a stack of books, a hackberry tree has been reborn as a grizzly bear and an ash tree is the perfect foil for neighborhood squirrels.

Since high speed winds downed or damaged 80 percent of Vinton's trees last summer, Brian Parr has wielded his chain saw to transform some of the remains into fascinating tree sculptures.

"Usually," Brian says, "I'm not sure exactly what it's going to be until it's done."

Yep. While he knew the 12-foot tall ginkgo stump in front of the Vinton Public Library would become a stack of books, he wasn't certain how it would materialize until he started his chain saw. He listened to others, though, and appropriately included the book title, "Gone with the Wind."

"It had crossed my mind," he says, "but I didn't put two and two together. Then this gal said, it's got to be ‘Gone with the Wind.'"

Those winds, up to 130 mph on July 11, 2011, left plenty of subjects for Brian's creativity.

On one side of town you'll see a Herky the Hawk, representing the University of Iowa athletic teams, while on the other you can find a pair of praying hands at the First Christian Church.

Brian, 51, has been working with wood most of his life, from a high school carving project to learning craftsmanship at the Amana Furniture and Clock Shop. He had his own business for a while but sold that. He became interested in hot air ballooning and falconry, moved to Dorchester in far northern Iowa to build a house and then listened to his wife, Jennifer.

"Do you have any intention of making a living up here?" she asked, to which he replied, "Yeah, I'll do what I always do."

That's fly by the seat of his pants. He'd seen chain saw artists work and thought that it be fun. He began carving bear heads and two weeks later found himself demonstrating the art at a celebration in Eitzen, Minn.

"I made $1,000 in a day," Brian said. "I told her, I think I know what I'm going to do."

That was nine years ago. He also demonstrated at lumberjack exhibition and wound up on The Game Show Network.

A year later, after returning to Vinton, he turned a damaged 20-foot elm tree into a golfer overlooking the No. 9 green at the Vinton Golf and Country Club.

Since the storm, Brian has finished 20 projects. He charges $100 per foot and has a backlog.

One of the most talked about trees marks the entrance to Riverview Drive where Deb and Bill Garbers lost most of a 60-foot concolor fir. Brian turn the remaining 14-foot stump into a huge sign surrounded by a "village," that includes a couple of log cabins, a church and a covered bridge.

"Brian said he could sketch it, but he didn't want to," Bill says. "He said, ‘Then you're going to hold me to it.'"

"We've had people stop all summer long to take pictures," Deb adds.

The Garbers will add landscaping and lights and varnish it regularly to keep sunlight and water from causing damage.

While he's proud of that work, Brian enjoyed the challenge of transforming a 16-foot tall stump in La Porte City into a partially husked ear of corn. Each of the 129 kernels are the size of dinner plates. And yet, that's still not enough.

"What I want to do," Brian says with a grin, "is the world's largest ear of corn."