'At the crossroad of rustic and refined'

This weekend’s chainsaw carving event in Libby is a first for local artist Ron Adamson. Though he’s carved commissioned work and other pieces with the gas-powered tool, he’s never competed with a chainsaw in his hands.

“I’m going up against guys who do this all the time,” he said. “Competitors have a system. I don’t carve in that way.”

Kootenai Country Montana organized the event, which takes place Friday through Sunday at the north end Mineral Avenue. Admission is free, and spectators will be able to watch Adamson and 13 other competitors work on more time-consuming competition sculptures as well as so-called “quick-carve” items hewn from smaller pieces of wood.

Adamson has one thing going for him — he’s no stranger to being watched while carving, and chainsaw carving is very much a spectator sport, he said.

Adamson said he learned to carve with people watching him. Early in his career, when he worked at St. Regis in Libby, first alongside the planer and then as a lumber grader, he carved while standing alongside the planer and outside during lunch breaks.

“I ended up doing live demos and on television,” he said. “It didn’t make me nervous to carve fast in front of people.”

Adamson is best-known as the sculptor of the bronze statue that stands at a Winslow, Arizona street corner memorialized in the Eagles’ song “Take it Easy.” His art career spans more than four decades. He said he got his start in painting with acrylics before getting hooked on woodcarving, then delved into bronze casting for a stretch, sculpted in stone and in recent years has added oil painter and watercolorist to his artistic resume. He’s participated in numerous art shows over the years, as a participant, judge, advisor and consultant.

Adamson said he had used a chainsaw before in his carving, an electric model, to get masses of wood out of way before using traditional tools. It wasn’t until he judged a chainsaw carving contest at the Westport Art Festival in 1996 that he realized what an artist can do with a chainsaw.

At first, he said, he wondered “What did I get myself into?” when he saw the size of the logs and all the chainsaws. But as the competition took place he was “shocked, stunned and fell in love with what they were doing.”

“The principles are the same (as wood carving with hand tools),” he said. “ I just have to cut away bigger pieces and use a saw instead of those little knives I had.”

Using a chainsaw is “the most fun way to carve” because of the scale and dynamics of the work and the “holy cow!” effect it has on spectators, Adamson said.

Holding a chainsaw carving contest in Libby was Adamson’s idea — “We’re a town of lumber people,” he said. “I could see people getting into it.” — and he was originally slated to be its organizer until he and Kootenai Country Montana had a disagreement over the marketing of the event.

Adamson was eventually asked to come back as a competitor, and said yes.

“What I care about is we have a good time for Libby,” he said.

By then Adamson had already put them in touch with Steve Backus — whom Adamson met while judging at the 1996 Westport Art Festival — to run the show.

“Steve was born with a chainsaw in his hands … (and) I knew Steve could get the carvers we needed to come to Libby,” Adamson said.