Sometimes people come to watch me carve. I try not to let it distract me, because chainsaw carving is a highly dangerous craft! I only started doing this a couple of years ago, and my first seven months were filled with fear. I try to hold onto some of that fear even now, because if you get lazy or sloppy, that's when accidents occur. I don't recommend you go running out and buying a chainsaw to try this yourself. There are numerous safety procedures to learn and specialized equipment needed or you could be severely injured or worse.

Three dimensional art is tough. It's a step by step process and you have to have a vision in your mind of what the finished piece will look like. When I look at a piece of wood - a log - I see an image. A mermaid, a bear, a dolphin... If I didn't, I wouldn't know where to start. I usually don't do as much detail along the way as I did here, but this Redwood Mermaid was so important to me, making her appear more "real" as I went along helped me to envision where the rest of her was hidden in the wood.