Chainsaw artists carve out a piece of Grays Harbor history

by Christine Vincent | Jun 18, 2021 | Art

The fantastic creations of chainsaw carver Anthony Robinson easily catch the eye of passersby as they spy his Native Beach Art just off State Route 109 at Copalis Crossing.

Tony carves everything imaginable, from the customary bears, eagles, Sasquatches and horses to forest and sea creatures and mythical beings. His 15-foot Poseidon statue can be admired at the Seabreeze Gallery at Hogan’s Corner.

Raised on a farm in Ohio, Tony built luxury homes for a living. However, when his marriage failed in 2011, he ended up in Westport, depressed and penniless. He began fashioning jewelry from beachcombed stones and sea glass.

Photo by Marguerite Garth

One day, when he came across a large piece of driftwood, he felt the urge to carve it into a wolf. “I bought a chainsaw and made a mess of it,” he remembers. Having found his vocation, he has been chainsaw carving prolifically ever since, with growing skill and infectious enthusiasm. In 2015, Tony opened his current shop in Copalis Crossing, where he has access to low-cost logs; something that is important, considering his penchant for large pieces.

One of his recent projects is a gigantic bar waterfall, carved from a hollow cedar “gun barrel” log. Loggers cannot use hollow trees but Tony’s ever-inventive mind has found a purpose for them. He has carved  the outside, inserted water hoses all the way to the top to create a waterfall and drilled holes into natural shelves to hold water plants. “The sound of the water falling in the cedar hollow is beautiful,” he says.

In spite of Covid-19, Tony’s Native Beach Art is doing well, with orders backed up, including a 13-foot Bigfoot waterfall. Not only does Tony enjoy creating art himself, he plans to give back to the art community by providing rent-free spaces on his property. He’s already constructed one 8-foot-by-12-foot prototype cabin to house an artist.

Grays Harbor has rich carver history

Chainsaw carving art has a rich history in Grays Harbor.  In fact, inside the Sooz Rusty Nail antique store in Ocean City is the home of the Judy McVay Museum of Chainsaw Carving.

Sooz Rusty Nail owners Sue Darcy and McNall Mason, tell the surprising story of a pioneering woman chainsaw artist, Judy McVay.  McVay is the nearly forgotten creator of familiar North Beach landmarks such as the “Welcome to Ocean Shores” sign and the iconic Lake Quinault Lodge rain gauge. In addition, she collaborated with her brother Mike McVay on the Humptulips Cemetery sign. The small museum opened this year.

Anthony Robinson is planning to house artists on his property in cabins like this prototype. (Photo by Marguerite Garth)

Chainsaw artist Judy McVay work hanging at Kalaloch Lodge (Photo by Amy Ostwalt)

It was while “picking” antiques for the store a while back that  Sue and McNall came across a beautiful discarded Copalis Beach Automotive sign,  bearing the carver’s signature, Judy McVay.

“We discovered that Judy’s amazing carvings were everywhere, but that nobody remembered her,” says Sue. Judy is a great-grandmother today and is retired outside of Grays Harbor.

So, Sue and McNall have made it their mission to restore the memory of this amazing chainsaw carving pioneer. Sooz Rusty Nail displays two large murals carved by Judy. More items are to follow. The last surviving totem pole carved by the artist is soon to be installed in the store. 

In addition, the two folk historians have created a beautiful brochure with a self-guided tour of Judy’s work, and a kiosk in a corner of the store. Their eloquently written and well-researched history of Judy McVay and her chainsaw-carving clan is a labor of love, published on two websites: soozrustynail.com and carveorstarve.org.

In 1969, Judy McVay and her itinerant logger husband Dick Backus divorced, leaving her stranded in Humptulips with three young children, Steve, Lynn and Boaz. In 1970, Judy’s chainsaw-artist brother Mike taught her how to carve with the heavy gas-powered saws of the time. Judy soon was able to support her family by carving signs.

She created thousands of beautiful folk art signs, many of which can still be found on the coast today. Sooz Rusty Nail houses a magnificent, 19-foot mural from the former Neil’s Clover Patch restaurant in Langley, depicting foods set out on a long table.

”Judy was a painter before she began carving,” explains Sue of the unique carving style. “She was also fascinated with stained glass. In this mural, she has recreated the look of stained glass.”

In addition to supporting her family with her art, Judy McVay made history as the first female chainsaw carver in Washington State. She baffled her male fellow carvers by routinely placing ahead of them in competitions.

“The guys at the Puyallup Fair used to dread her arrival, hoping she would not come,” says Sue. “She used to show up in her truck at the last minute.”

Judy’s daughter, Lynn, continued the tradition of female chainsaw artists and later even helped teach Tony Robinson to carve. And Judy’s sons, Steve and Boaz Backus, also followed the family tradition.

A ‘family’ of carvers

Recently Tony Robinson was among the area chainsaw carvers to attend a fundraiser for Judy’s son, Boaz Backus, a carver who was recovering from a heart attack.

Hosted by Ivan and Maria Haas, owners of the Ocean City Market Place, many carvers came to the aid of their fellow artist.

Among the roar of five or six running saws and a fragrant cloud of sawdust, Steve Backus could be seen using a propane burner to add black accents to the surface of an eagle sculpture. He created the eagle especially for the auction to benefit his brother. His display also includes older pieces, such as an animated elephant relief. A small sailboat on a curly sea, beautiful in its simplicity, shows that Steve, like his mother, has taken chainsaw carving from craft to the

level of art.

At the fundraiser for his brother, Steve Backus shared some of his encyclopedic knowledge of chainsaw art history. He talked about the arrival of the commercial chainsaw in the 1950s and about his uncle Mike McVay carving an Easter Island head at Eel Lake, Oregon, in 1956, which may have been the very first chainsaw carving.

The art of chainsaw carving may actually have been born right here in the Pacific Northwest. In his research, Steve has not been able to find any early chainsaw artists on the East Coast. The McVay-Backus family has certainly played a major role in the practice and promotion of the art of chainsaw carving.

Recuperating after his heart attack, Boaz’s greatest worry is that he might not be able to carve anymore.

His brother Steve explains. “Carving is only part of the job. It’s like a construction job, moving heavy pieces and loading them onto trucks.”

Thankfully, Boaz is also a gifted auctioneer. ”He is the benchmark auctioneers measure themselves against,” says Steve. “Boaz has raised about $650,000 (over the years). He has helped so many others, now we are helping him.”

The elephant is one of Steve Backus’ favorite pieces. (Photo by Christine Vincent)

There are two great opportunities to view and shop for chainsaw art this summer. The Ocean Shores Sand and Sawdust Festival takes place June 25 to 27. There, 30 carvers will be creating a hundred sculptures. For more information, go to www.tourismoceanshores.com/sand-and-sawdust-2021. Tokeland Wood & Arts Fest is scheduled for August 14 and 15 at the Tokeland Hotel. There will be chainsaw carving, wood artists, food vendors, and live music. For more information go to

www.tokelandnorthcove.com

Inside summer issue – Grays Harbor poets, musicians, actors, artists keep creating

by Gail Greenwood Ayres | May 28, 2021 | Art, Music, Theater

Mermaid Museum
Mermaid Museum (Photo by Marguerite Garth)

After more than a year of being closed-in and cloistered, the warmer summer weather and opportunity for outdoor entertainment and activities leaves us with optimism that our world is slowly getting back to normal in the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

As you can imagine, publishing a magazine celebrating art, music, theater and food in Grays Harbor has certainly been a challenge this last year when quarantine rules necessitated the shutdown of plays, concerts, art shows, museums and many restaurants, as well as the cancellation of much-anticipated festivals and celebrations.

Still, reporting on creative people gave us a leg up. Not even a world-wide pandemic can stop artists from producing art, musicians from making music, writers from writing and actors from honing their art. And it certainly can’t stop art lovers from appreciating creativity!

For some artists, their creativity genius turned to exploring new ways and mediums through which the audiences could experience the creations – virtual concerts, drive-in celebrations, outdoor performances, online Q and A’s about the creative process and more.  For other creatives, the year served as a sort of sabbatical to nurture their own creative process, take a break, delve into new genres, or just create, create, create and simply wait to share their passion with others once it was easier to do so!

And while many restaurants, galleries, museums, theaters and concert halls took a financial hit during this time, we predict a great resurgence in their popularity after people realize, after a near starvation diet,  how much the arts inspire and feed their souls.

(So, before we go forward, we want to look back and thank all of our advertisers for allowing us to continue to bring this magazine free to you! Please honor and help them by patronizing them. Put your money where your mouth is and show them how valuable they are to our community! And while you are at it, do us a favor and let them know that you saw their ad in the magazine! It helps them and us.)

Tony Robinson, Chainsaw Artist
Tony Robinson, Chainsaw Carver (Photo by Marguerite Garth)
(Photo by Rick Moyer)

The good news is that things really are opening back up again!

At press time for this summer issue, however, some uncertainty still exists about whether society will close down tighter again for a season. Thankfully, we’ve selected stories about people and places that should be accessible regardless of quarantine concerns.

Let’s start with our cover story on the Westport Winery Garden Resort. If you travel on Highway 105, you can’t miss the oasis that Kim and Blain Roberts have built halfway between Westport and Aberdeen.  There’s even a lighthouse to show you the way! Either before or after a meal, a bakery treat or a glass of wine, take time to stroll the well-designed gardens filled with both whimsical and reflective sculptures. Or, play one of the many outdoor games available for adults and children. You may want to also explore the recently opened mermaid museum!

This issue of Coastal Currents also features the personalities and lore of area chainsaw artists. Read about Tony Robinson and the close-knit community of area chainsaw carvers.

Rex Valentine is a well-known name on the Harbor, especially in East County. Learn more about this musician and internationally acclaimed poet.  His books are available via his website or can be checked out through the Timberland Library.

Music and faith are the lifeblood of pianist Bill Brown, who not only follows a centuries-old tradition of using his talent within the church, but also enjoys playing for local theater as well as training up the next generation of musicians.

Bill Brown (Photo by Rick Moyer)

This issue of Coastal Currents also introduces you to the area’s craft breweries.  A cool glass on a warm day is appreciated by many – and we were aware that many of these breweries offered outside seating, both pleasant in the summer and helpful during pandemics!

We’ve also carefully gathered the information for upcoming events into our Coastal Currents events calendar, which begins on page 43. However nowadays especially, it goes without saying – but we will anyway.

Bill Brown playing piano
Bill Brown (Photo by Rick Moyer)

Quinault Artist Ezekiel Serrano Brings Healing

by Coastal Currents | Mar 31, 2021 | Art

For the Pacific Northwest indigenous people, art is a carrier of culture, of tribal legend and history. Art is created in families and connects the community. Most importantly, art is a way of healing, of recovering spiritual roots. For Taholah artist Ezekiel Serrano, 36, healing is a vocation expressed both in his work as a certified group trainer at the Taholah Indian Health Clinic and in his deeply spiritual art.

Serrano’s work at the clinic includes teaching traditional skills such as gathering and preparing medicinal herbs and living o‑ the land. Many elders struggle with diabetes and bene­ t from a return to a traditional diet, Serrano says. While teaching them, Serrano is learning a wealth of knowledge about the history of his people.

“I could quit my job and be a full-time artist, but my work in the clinic goes hand in hand with my art,” he explains.” In order to create good art, one needs inner balance. My work helps me keep my spiritual infrastructure in place.”

Born to a Quinault mother and a Filipino father, Serrano lived only the ­ first four years of his life in Taholah. His family’s move to Hoquiam placed a signi­ficant distance between the boy and his Quinault roots.

While attending Hoquiam schools, Serrano discovered his love for art, taking art classes throughout middle School and high school, and even in college. After earning his bachelor’s degree in biology from Eastern Washington University, he parked cars for a year at the Quinault Casino before landing his current position at the Taholah Clinic.

Serrano says he deeply enjoys his work with the elders. “Gathering camas root and cooking stinging nettles brought me back to the land,” he says. “I was back from the fraternities and clubs. I got re-rooted.”

In Northwest Coastal art, traditional geometric shapes and stylized ­figures constitute a language in which the artist tells the spiritual history of his tribe. The shapes are intricately connected reflecting the connection of the human community with their natural and supernatural environment, Serrano explains. He had studied legends and tribal history online and in books to enlarge his artistic vocabulary before the Quinault elders helped him learn art the indigenous way.

The artist’s immersion in tribal culture has resulted in a stunning array of traditional Quinault art, including ceremonial masks, paddles, drums and figurines. At the same time, he has been exploring new ways of using tribal motifs in paintings, vector designs and, most recently, silk screening.

Many mythological characters inhabit Serrano’s art, including Thunderbird, the supernatural messenger from the spiritual realm to the physical. He is featured in a beautiful, brightly painted ceremonial mask. Other masks represents Raven, crafty and creative, who gets into a lot of trouble but is also smart and wise; and Wolf, the protector, who is delicate and calm but at the same time a ­fierce leader.

Carvings of two wooden feathers tell of the mythical Eagle with large feathers that pulled o‑ the top of a cedar tree. He carried it to the top of a mountain and all sorts of birds dwelt in the tree. Serrano’s 6-by-3-foot Eagle Song Carrier carving has a place of honor as a backdrop in the Taholah Tribal Council Chambers. Eagle is a knowledge keeper. A carving of Eagle’s image was traditionally carried in ceremonies.

The wood carving Salmon Run is a 5-foot-diameter circular relief depicting the life cycle of the salmon with a creator mask in the center. This carving depicts a magni­fied version of a spindle. Traditionally everyday objects such as spindles, baskets, boxes, combs, spoons, and paddles were beautifully decorated in Quinault culture and imbued with spiritual significance. Each shape, each figure has a name and a story connecting everyday objects with the spiritual world, Serrano says.

“Art is sacred,” declares Serrano. As a Christian, he is trying to show the tribe how Christianity and indigenous beliefs come together. “God spoke to us in different ways in the early times,” he explains. “He spoke in legends.” Not everybody in the tribe agrees with him, but they respect his beliefs.

Serrano has been proli­fic in his art since he returned to Taholah.

His work has been recognized at home and beyond. A selection is on exhibit in the Quinault Cultural Center, 807 5th Ave., in Taholah. From his strong foundation in traditional design, Serrano has taken his art into the modern world, creating promotional designs for events and organizations.

In 2018, he won a contest designing a logo for the Food Sovereignty Coalition, a group of 43 tribes promoting traditional foods. In the same year, Serrano was proud to collaborate with another Quinault tribal member on a commission for the Tribal Tales Exhibition at the Seattle Children’s Museum. He illustrated a story written by storyteller Harvest Moon, titled “Dog Legend,” creating a giant single-page vector graphic cartoon. The story was hung in a case of Plexiglas for children to read and touch.

In the same year, Marvin Oliver, a Quinault/Alaskan elder and professor of art at Washington State University, came to introduce Taholah artists to new techniques and media. He inspired Serrano to learn silk screening, which has become a favorite technique to create multiple copies of his artwork. Under Oliver’s mentorship, Serrano enthusiastically embarked on a project of great signi­ficance for the tribe, a pair of totems cut out from sheets of steel with decorative oxidized shadings.

The Taholah community is in the process of raising the village above the tsunami line where the new Generations Building will house Head Start and Senior Services, the young and the old. Serrano’s steel totems are to be mounted on the entrance columns. The order of the figures from top to bottom shows how Quinault society views age. Oliver created the two elders at the bottom, sitting in prayer positions with hands raised. They hold up the families with their wisdom and knowledge, teaching the younger generation what they need to know. The adults take refuge under the wings of the double-headed eagle, the knowledge keeper. On top, Chithwin, the bear, represents the youth.

Serrano is currently working on another large commission for the tribe, a project close to his heart as a healer. The Quinault Museum has recently recovered The Guardian, an 18-inch healing statue from a museum in Chicago. Serrano was commissioned by the tribe to carve a 17-foot version of The Guardian to be mounted on a hillside in Taholah. His knowledgeable mentors, cousins Titus and Guy Capoeman, are collaborating on this project. A large cedar log is housed under a lean-to of the veterans’ building. The site right on the river is ideal.

“People stop by to talk and to pray,” says Serrano. “I have everybody take a knife and cut. This is community work.” He is using handmade tools in his work, among them an adze.

While using his adze to carve his healing statue, Serrano was inspired to create his own version of the power ­ fist symbol. A black and white computer graphic of a ­fist pulling an adze conveys this healer’s take on the symbol: “The fist should be used for work, for creating!”