In Mount Airy, chainsaw artists are transforming dead trees into sculptures

Two chainsaw artists have been working in Mount Airy to transform dead trees into works of art on the town’s Rails to Trails West.

Colin Vale, 33, of Olney, is working to transform an ash tree, killed by emerald ash borers, an invasive wood-boring beetle. His final 20-foot piece will feature oversized leaves of trees native to Mount Airy as well as an emerald ash borer, in homage to the tree’s death.

“There’s a lot of things that go into it, and the tools just enable my imagination to be transformed into reality,” Vale said.

Fellow chainsaw artist Evelyn Mogren has also been working to carve a wooden tableau of nature, featuring two bears playing, a beaver gnawing at a tree stump, and a fox chasing a rabbit for the town.

“It’s transformative to think of dead trees not as a waste product,” Vale said, “but as a ‘re-source’ in the true definition of resource, turning it from one thing into another.”

The finished work is likely to last a decade or two. Vale said fungus has already begun to decay the tree from the roots up, with the gradual yet unstoppable force of nature’s decomposition cycle.

“They’re designed to only last so long,” Vale said. “That’s part of it. It’s ephemeral. It feels permanent now, but it’s not permanent. You can watch how the passage of time affects the sculpture, which is a beautiful part of the art, I believe.”

Though the town was unable to provide monetary specifics on the carvings, the project is grant funded, according to Town of Mount Airy communications specialist Gina Gallucci-White, and offers town residents a new way to appreciate trees.

“Many of these trees were nearing the end of their lives,” Gallucci-White said in an email. “The town wanted to give residents a new and unique way to enjoy these trees for years to come. We’ve seen so many people … stop to take pictures with the chainsaw art and admire the work of these talented artists. We are always happy to see people take a closer look at nature.”

A chainsaw is a natural tool for such a massive project because it carves wood relatively quickly, Vale said.

Vale graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Maryland, then traveled and volunteered in 13 countries around the world in 2013. He became inspired by the art of Moi Moi Tuki on Rapa Nui, commonly known as Easter Island. He learned to carve wood on an organic farm on the island, and admired the way residents valued art, as evidenced by the moai, iconic stone statues with oversized heads that were carved by the Rapa Nui people.

Years later, Vale found himself unsatisfied with his job as a computer programmer. He headed in a completely different direction, learning chainsaw carving from an artist in Virginia, and starting his own business, called Carving Colin.

In March 2022, Vale designed and carved “The Only Time Is Now” from the 10-foot stump of a once-towering sycamore tree that died in 2021 at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. In 2022 he was commissioned to make a bench out of the Linden Oak, a 300-to-400-year-old tree believed to have been the oldest tree in Montgomery County when it died.

The Mount Airy project will be his largest work to date, he said.

“This is the biggest project ever for me,” Vale said. “They’ve been willing to let me kind of express my artistic vision … which I really appreciate. I think this will result in a in some fine art.”

Woodcarving with chainsaws is compelling because it represents a series of self-contradictions, Vale said. Wood is hard, but soft enough to be cut; a sculpture is permanent, but only until it decays; and using a chainsaw is the fastest way to carving, but carving a massive sculpture is a slow process.

“One of the paradoxes of carving is that it’s creation through destruction, purely,” Vale said. “There’s no attachment, meaning no adding pieces on. It’s all subtractive; it’s all destructive. You start with the biggest size the sculpture could be.”

Vale says anyone is welcome to watch his artistic process, which he expects to continue for the next month. He usually works from around noon to 5 p.m. on weekdays and can be found at the Rails to Trails West Hill Street entrance near Prospect Park.