Letter to the Editor: Cougars and wolves in the state’s woods wouldn’t scare me; humans on the other hand …

Letter to the Editor: St. Mary’s Church parishioner wowed by holiday Mass, looks forward to more like it

<p>Michael Blaine sliced, shaved, jabbed and poked at an 8-foot-high white pine log with his assorted chainsaws until the form of a cowgirl emerged.</p><p>Periodically consulting photographs of the woman he&#8217;s recreating, the Foster Township wood carver added subtle details that brought her to life &#8212; strands of hair, wrinkles in the jeans, a belt buckle, bandana and blouse under a vest.</p><p>She must look real because a Florida rancher commissioned the statue as a memorial to his late wife.</p><p>&#8220;This is beyond average carving,&#8221; said Blaine, 57, who tackles projects at his Dream Wood Workshop in Pocono Pines near Blakeslee when he&#8217;s not creating pieces on-site.</p><p>&#8220;You have to have an understanding of anatomy and art, scales and proportions.&#8221;</p><p>Blaine&#8217;s pieces are displayed in private and public spaces throughout the country &#8212; including a life-sized bear outside a local Kingston Township residence and replicated Native American totem poles for a Boy Scouts of America camp in Staten Island, New York.</p><p>The New Hampshire native got to know Northeastern Pennsylvania through his extensive travels.</p><p>A real estate listing for five acres in a quiet, woodsy section of Foster Township near White Haven in Luzerne County caught his eye during one of his trips to the Poconos, and he snatched up the property for his homestead in 2004.</p><p>The father of one has been whittling since he was a young boy but got serious when his mother signed him up for a wood carving course as his 13th birthday present.</p><p>He worked various jobs after graduating with a bachelor&#8217;s degree in art from Middlebury College in Vermont but decided to pursue chainsaw carving full-time in 1989.</p><p>&#8220;My silly hobby was paying a lot of bills,&#8221; said Blaine, who has won numerous carving competitions and was part of a six-man United States team invited to participate in a speed carving world championship in Germany in May.</p><p>Transforming a log into an intricate piece of art requires advance planning and concentration as the wood chips and dust fly because there&#8217;s no turning back.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not like clay, where you can add more and take it away until you get it the way you want. This is a one-shot deal to the end. Once the wood is gone, you can&#8217;t put it back,&#8221; said Blaine, describing his work as &#8220;reductive sculpture.&#8221;</p><p>Blaine tells people he&#8217;s half done with a project by the time his blade first touches the wood.</p><p>Growing interest in the art form has prompted manufacturers to design special chainsaw equipment for carvers that is easier to maneuver, with tapered blades to get into nooks and crannies.</p><p>Blaine has worked with red and white oak, cherry, rose mahogany, catalpa, pine and many other types of wood and particularly enjoys sycamore.</p><p>&#8220;Sycamore carves nice and holds great detail,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Every wood has its pros and cons.&#8221;</p><p>Each specimen must be examined because wood that&#8217;s too &#8220;fuzzy&#8221; or bearing a sizable split may alter or rule out his plans, he said.</p><p>Blaine can&#8217;t attack the wood with too much force because he may hit dense knots with his saw, kind of like hitting bone while carving a hunk of meat with an electric knife. Carvers unprepared for such &#8220;kick back&#8221; have been knocked to the ground, which is dangerous while holding a chainsaw. The danger is upped because Blaine often works on scaffolding.</p><p>He&#8217;s developed contacts to supply new logs every few months.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a lot nicer to carve fresh wood. It&#8217;s the same reason mills saw green wood. When wood gets older, it gets tough,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Planned drying and treatments are sometimes necessary to prevent or minimize cracks called &#8220;checks.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re carving really dry wood, you have issues with checks and lesions that have been accented because of the drying process,&#8221; he said.</p><p>He often uses knives and other hand tools to sharpen and smooth out eyes and noses or the feathers and fir on his animals.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like the final coat of paint. I lean toward realism.&#8221;</p><p>A painter Blaine carved stands by the sign in front of Gleco Paint and Wallcovering on Route 940 in Mount Pocono and has attracted comments from hundreds of passersby who initially believed it was a real man, store workers say.</p><p>Ohio newspapers have featured articles on his giant Native American chief along a popular trail and his mother bear and two cubs at the Akron Zoo.</p><p>The L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine, urges visitors to check out the bears Blaine carved in an ash tree that had become a safety issue behind the store.</p><p>Blaine said he &#8220;lost count&#8221; of the thousands of pieces he&#8217;s carved. His creations include numerous types of animals and customized lighthouses, statutes of St. Francis in a robe with birds and football players. His larger and more complicated pieces sell for thousands of dollars.</p><p>He&#8217;s relieved there&#8217;s a demand for wood sculptures.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s an inherent need for aesthetics in our lives.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A Native American wood sculpture created by Foster Township resident Michael Blaine. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver01.jpg</photo0><caption0>A Native American wood sculpture created by Foster Township resident Michael Blaine. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Foster Township resident Michael Blaine uses chainsaws to transform a white pine log into a cowgirl. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver02.jpg</photo1><caption1>Foster Township resident Michael Blaine uses chainsaws to transform a white pine log into a cowgirl. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver03.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">An assortment of chainsaws and scaffolding often are required for Michael Blaine&#8217;s wood sculptures. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver03.jpg</photo2><caption2>An assortment of chainsaws and scaffolding often are required for Michael Blaine&#8217;s wood sculptures. </caption2><photoCredit2>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver04.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Foster Township resident Michael Blaine has created statues of many types of animals, including this bear outside his Pocono Pines workshop, since he started wood carving full-time in 1989. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_woodcarver04.jpg</photo3><caption3>Foster Township resident Michael Blaine has created statues of many types of animals, including this bear outside his Pocono Pines workshop, since he started wood carving full-time in 1989. </caption3><photoCredit3>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>Wood sculptor Michael Blaine will demonstrate his carving skills at WinterFest 2016 in Jim Thorpe Feb. 13 and 14. Visit www.jimthorpe.org for event details.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Chainsaw wood carver Michael Blaine turns hobby into profession