By KATHLEEN O’CONNOR/YachatsNews
A tough guy. A softie. The personality of Brian McEneny, owner of Brian McEneny Woodcarving Gallery in Seal Rock, is a combination of sensitive and rough-and-tumble.
His two passions in life — skiing and chainsaw carving — are both definitely on the rugged side. But his poetry and his completed chainsaw sculptures are clearly creative and artistic.
His family owned a cabin on Mount Hood, so McEneny started skiing as a small child. By age six all he wanted to do was ski. And that’s all he did in every free winter moment throughout his childhood and then full time as a member of a ski patrol team after he graduated from high school.
That passion had to be set aside when a recurring knee injury sidelined him in his mid-20s.
He started writing poetry when he was 15 and wrote continuously until he discovered chainsaw carving. He quit writing for 50 years, but suddenly picked it up again about five years ago, waking up in the middle of the night with a poem in his head.
A period of searching followed the knee injury, leading him to the Oregon coast. He became friends with a group of men who were all just starting to create chainsaw carvings, and he decided to try it. Although it took time to learn he immediately embraced the creativity and began looking for ways to elevate the art form.
Over time his shop has become one of the most well-known chainsaw sculpture shops on the Oregon coast, and this year marks the 50th year he has been in business.
Question: What did you like about skiing?
Answer: Skiing was magnificent. Every single run was flat out fun. There was very little work involved since the chairlifts did all the hill climbing. I never learned to do ski jumping or racing … I just continuously enjoyed the thrill of flying down a mountain on skis.
Q: Tell us how poetry and writing have been part of your life?
A: I am not sure why, but starting at age 15 I felt compelled to write poems about all my experiences around skiing. Perhaps I somehow knew I wouldn’t be able to ski forever. And then, in 2018, I decided it was important to share those poems and the evolution of my chainsaw sculptures, so I put a book together about both of them, Carving Out a Life, Stories and Poems. And now I am writing poetry again. I think that’s because of my age.
Q: Describe the way your sculptures have developed over the last 50 years?
A: As soon as I tried chainsaw carving I liked it. For me it has always been fun, just as skiing was fun. For a long time, I just made flat wall pieces. I was reluctant/afraid to try anything three dimensional. Finally, I carved an owl and as my confidence grew I made bears and eagles. These were common things that chainsaw artists created at the time, and all were creatures of the forest. Eventually I decided to try sculpting sea creatures instead, and that is what I have focused on for most of my career — whales, dolphins, octopus, sea stars and the like. I decided early on to smooth out my pieces by sanding them, which is something most chainsaw artists don’t do.
It took four years to get to the point where I could make a living doing this. For those four years I would work somewhere for six months, accumulating some cash, then created and sold my sculptures throughout the summer. It’s hard to believe 50 years have passed by.
Q: What is your favorite piece?
A: My favorite is a very large piece that I have in my gallery with nine dolphins. It is carved from a huge, beautifully complex piece of redwood that I got in Eureka, an entanglement of roots and trunk and branches. For 10 years I was afraid to touch it, fearing that I would ruin it. Then, in 2015, I had to face knee surgery again, 40 years after the surgeries from my skiing injuries. I was terrified, and for some reason I turned to that piece of wood, and found I could finally see what it was supposed to become. I worked on the piece each of the 21 days I had before my surgery was scheduled and got it completely roughed out.
Q: What kind of tools and wood do you use to create your sculptures?
A: I use different sizes of chainsaw carving bars. The tips come in various sizes; the most common are called the dime tip and the quarter tip. These allow me to chip out and form a sculpture. This is followed by a lot of sanding. I use all types of sanding equipment — belt sanders, disc sanders, polishing sanders.
I don’t have a favorite wood. I have found that each wood has its own special properties. I use redwood, cedar, black walnut and maple which can all be found in the Pacific Northwest. I used to make pieces for outdoor use and indoor use but now I tell everyone to only keep the pieces inside. Redwood and cedar will stand up better outside, but every type of finish I’ve ever tried to use is eventually destroyed by exposure to the sun.
One of my favorite places to get wood is in Eureka. I can always find beautiful pieces of redwood there. I can create sculptures from blocks of wood or from pieces of driftwood or slash. I much prefer to use the driftwood/slash because I can visualize creatures in the existing flow of the roots and branches.
Tell us a secret.
I had to be tenacious to make a life out of being a chainsaw artist. I encourage everyone who has a dream to be relentless in pursuing it.
- Brian McEneny Woodcarving, 10751 NW Pacific Coast Highway, Seal Rock; 541-563-2452; Website: www.woodcarvinggallery.com; Facebook: Brian McEneny Woodcarvings
- Kathleen O’Connor is a Waldport freelance writer who can be reached via email at kmoc8916@gmail.com
Brian’s ability to look at a complex piece of wood and see the final outcome makes him a truly a one -of-a-kind artist.