Williams created totem poles for Rock Hill High School

Travis Williams, of Wurtland, Kentucky, said he was on a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, when he saw an artist creating pieces from wood with a chainsaw.

“It was always something I wanted to do,” he said.

When Williams was laid off from AK Steel, he said he decided to take advantage of his newfound extra time to give it a try.

“I had been going back to school and, when I came home, my wife was at work, the kids were out, so I would go outdoors and start messing around,” he said.

He said he had a tree in his yard that had died, and cut it down.

“I took the stump and played around,” he said.

His first piece, which was a bear, led to many, many more.

Since he started three years ago, Williams says he has created nearly 1,000 pieces of chainsaw art, with a variety of subject matter.

“I do a little bit of everything,” he said. “Animals, bears, college mascots.”

He said to do a piece, such as a two-foot bear sculpture, it usually takes two hours of cutting.

“It really depends what I’m doing, though,” he said. “Everything’s different.”

Once he’s finished with the chainsaw, he goes in and adds detail with hand tools.

“There’s a certain level of detail you can’t achieve with a chainsaw, so I use a die grinder, sanders or a hand chisel,” he said.

After the sculpting is done, he does the final part of the process.

“I’ll burn it with a torch to remove the loose wood fibers,” Williams said. “Then it will take the stain or paint better. As a last step, I’ll coat it with varnish or a pro sealer so it can be placed outside.”

He said he has found a large customer base, marketing his work through his Facebook page.

“I deal strictly off Facebook and, over the last two years, my work has got out there to a broader base,” Williams said.

He said he has pieces on display throughout the region, such a piece at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park’s lodge, totem poles at Rock Hill High School and Greenbo Lodge, a life-size depiction of Randall McCoy at the McCoy Homestead and a six-foot cigar store Indian for a Boyd County lounge.

“It’s pretty spread out in the Tri-State,” he said.

He said he takes custom requests.

“People want something unique and I give them a quote and we go from there,” he said. “It’s been crazy busy for me.”