“I think, as it starts to take shape, it’s really going to wow people,” he said. “It’s going to incorporate a lot of things. It’s really detailed. It’ll have lots more animals, birds, their pets. It was really a fun collaboration, to work with Tabitha on this design.”

Tabitha King said she was inspired by trees themselves, and their importance in our lives.

“Their substances give us shelter and furniture, and warmth in winter — cue joke about shade in the summer — and the paper from which we make books. They are homes for birds and insects and animals and food for fungi,” she said. “It is said that the dead tree gives no shelter. In reality the dead tree supports a wealth of life. That is what the sculpture will reveal.”

The Kings had to take down most of the ash tree, which Landry estimates is around 300 years old, after it became infested with insects; the stump is still rooted in the ground. Though Landry said the wood does have a few damaged spots, it’s nothing he can’t cut around and make work.

Tabitha King said she was sad to cut the tree, but saw potential in it as soon as it came down.

“It was heartbreaking to cut that tree — she was a grande dame of a tree, absolutely magnificent,” she said. “I had her cut high with the thought of a wood sculpture. I didn’t know what at the time, and it took quite a while to settle on an artist.”

Landry started doing chainsaw carving when he was 16. With blacksmiths, carpenters and other artists in his family, as well as loggers, the combination of visual art and physical labor appealed to him on multiple levels. Landry has competed in and several times won chainsaw sculpting competitions around the country, and has created sculptures all over New England and as far away as Tennessee.