Bob Ross With A Chainsaw

About 15 years ago, Tim Bonney saw guys with chainsaws carving bears, gnomes, wizards at a country fair, and knew he could do it too.

So he did.

I picked up a chainsaw at a tag sale and started cutting logs,” said Bonney, 55, who has carved more than 300 more figures that now decorate the lawns, gardens and driveway entrances of folk art lovers around the Valley and surrounding region.

He advertises his work with a carved bear and a sign in his driveway, at 39 Holbrook Road. Customers see the number — 203 – 888-5362 — and call to ask for a favorite animal.

It’s no secret that most peole prefer bears.

Everybody relates to a bear,” Bonney said. I paint some of them a flat black. It makes it look just like a black bear.”

The carvings, made entirely out of logs that otherwise would probably be cut up for firewood, sell for anywhere from $50 to $1,000, depending on the complexity. They are finished with deck stains and are often colorful, in muted tones.

They attract attention.

People drive by sometimes and call me, or it’s word of mouth. I do special commission work for somebody, they like it, and somebody else will ask about it,” Bonney said.

By day, Bonney works in maintenance for the City of Shelton, doing a lot of carpentry and remodeling. By night, and on weekends, he is one of hundreds of chainsaw artists in the National Wood Carvers Association whose work has been struggling for an audience in the recession.

The hard economic times mean fewer people are willing to spend several hundred dollars or more for a wood carving to decorate their yard.

The economy has hit our members,” said Cathy Frye, spokesman for the Nation Wood Carvers Association, with 15,000 members worldwide. That’s down from 55,000 in the mid-1990s.

Many of the members are retirees who earn a supplemental income by selling wood carvings. Few who are not retired do it full-time.

Chainsaw carving first became popular in the 1960s, with the spread of power tools. Old-time wood carvers realized they could do more work in less time with a chainsaw, compared with hand chisles.

The hand held chislers were not accepting at first,” Frye said. As they have aged and the arthritis and other maladies have set in, it seems to be more common place.”

At a country fair, the chainsaw carvers get lots of attention. They are usually located outside the venue so visitors get to see them first thing. The sound of the chainsaw is also an attention getter,” Frye said. 

It is an art form that is popular wherever there are logs to spare, from New England to the Pacific Northwest. The carvers share tips on websites and they read the association’s magazine, Chit Chats, for ideas.

Bonney said he keeps in touch with lots of his fellow carvers on the web.

You learn from each other,” he said. But a lot of this, you definitely learn on your own. It takes time to develop a technique for all this.”

Bonney’s eyes brighten when he talks about the artistic satisfaction he gets from completing a piece.

It’s a lot of creativity. To me it is such a release,” Bonney said. I get immersed in this art and forget about everything else and just let a lot of creativity flow. To me it’s my passion. If I could I would do this all day long.”

He calls his enterprise Timbercraft, and he can be reached by email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

lt really is a passion,” Bonney said.

His wife, Laurie, and his son Daniel, 15, are fans of his work. The property is decorated with lots of it, and his workshop is full of samples.

Each one is unique to itself. Some of them can be happy, or sad,” Bonney said. He pointed to one piece, a bear holding a colorful fish. That bear at the end of the driveway is happy because he just caught a fish.”

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