ARTISTIC REJUVENATION WOOD SCULPTURE CREATES LIFE OUT OF TRUNK OF DEAD TREE.Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer When people drive by Davida and Bruce Tydings' house in Encino, they sometimes stop and stare in amazement at what's in their front yard. One day, a school bus stopped in front of their house and the children piled out to get a closer look at something they had never seen before. And, of course, everyone who stops by wants to have their picture taken with it. What's attracting all the attention is a wood sculpture, which depicts a life-size bear and wolf, created in surprising detail. Chain-saw sculptor Stacy Poitras of Woodland Hills has been working for about three weeks on the sculpture. Using five chain saws of various sizes, he's created the two animals from a tree trunk, all that's left of a 60-year-old pepper tree pepper tree: see sumac. that was in the Tydings' front yard in the 5400 block of Oak Park Avenue. . Davida said a fungus fungus Any of about 200,000 species of organisms belonging to the kingdom Fungi, or Mycota, including yeasts, rusts, smuts, molds, mushrooms, and mildews. Though formerly classified as plants, they lack chlorophyll and the organized plant structures of stems, roots, and had gotten into the soil around the tree, absorbing all the nutrients and killing the tree, which was about 3 feet in diameter. Rather than having the tree completely removed, they decided to have the trunk remain and hired Poitras to make a wood sculpture. They chose a wolf and a bear because Bruce's late father was named Bearwolf. Before the sculpture was commissioned, Bruce got tattoos of a bear and a wolf -- one on each of his shoulders -- in memory of his father. Poitras re-created the tattoos in his wood sculpture. Poitras said he's had many interesting requests for sculptures from people in the past. Some of his most unique sculptures have been a mermaid, a soccer ball and a pair of ice skates Skates may refer to:
His next project will be a golden eagle flying over a river with salmon jumping about in the water. The sculpture will be made from an oak tree in the Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. near Malibu. Many times, the requests are sentimental, such as the Tydings' request. Many people ask that he make a sculpture of a beloved pet that has died. Sometimes they'll request a sculpture of a pet that's getting older and the owners want something created to remember the pet now. Poitras meets the pet, measures it and takes several photos of it to make sure the three-dimensional image is as accurate as possible. Poitras, 38, didn't start as a chain saw artist. He attended a fine arts school in Boston and focused more on drawing, stained glass stained glass, in general, windows made of colored glass. To a large extent, the name is a misnomer, for staining is only one of the methods of coloring employed, and the best medieval glass made little use of it. and graphic arts graphic arts: see aquatint; drawing; drypoint; engraving; etching; illustration; linoleum block printing; lithography; mezzotint; niello; pastel; poster; silk-screen printing; silhouette; silverpoint; sketch; stencil; woodcut and wood engraving. . But he felt he couldn't sit still long enough to create a sculpture. One day, he took a different route to school at the suggestion of his father. That random suggestion changed Poitras' life. He saw a man creating a wood sculpture and Poitras knew that was what he wanted to do. The results are so immediate, which was a major attraction for him. The trees that are toughest to carve carve v. carved, carv·ing, carves v.tr. 1. a. To divide into pieces by cutting; slice: carved a roast. b. are cherry, oak and eucalyptus eucalyptus (y  'kəlĭp`təs): see myrtle. eucalyptus . Oak and cherry are hard woods. ``It's like carving carving, n the shaping and forming with instruments. cement,'' he said. The problem with eucalyptus is that it cracks easily, he added. Davida said the sculpture isn't just aesthetically beautiful, it's also symbolically meaningful. ``It takes something that is dead and creates life out of it,'' she said. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- 3 -- color) TOP: A close-up of the bear in the wood sculpture. LEFT: Stacy Poitras puts the finishing touches finishing touches finish npl the finishing touches → der letzte Schliff finishing touches npl → ultimi ritocchi mpl on a wood sculpture of a wolf and a bear in the front yard of Davida and Bruce Tydings of Encino. ABOVE: Crews cut down a 60-year-old pepper tree in front of David and Bruce Tydings' house. A fungus had gotten into the soil around the tree, causing it to die. Mark Kellam/Valley News |
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