Creative Sparks
Mount Lookout artist finds hidden secrets in the wood
Learn about the artist and her work.
See the intricate details of one of Karen’s
most recent pieces.
Photo gallery of pictures taken while shadowing Karen.
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05/28/2009
By Erin Murray and Tricia Fulks MOUNT LOOKOUT—Karen Sparks, 58, doesn’t have to travel far for work. Each day she walks out her kitchen door and into a small shed that smells like musty sawdust. If she ever needs more supplies, she walks behind the shed to the mountain of wood that spills into her backyard.
For the past eight years, Sparks has pursued a career as a chainsaw sculptor.
Before finding this passion, Sparks spent years stocking shelves at the local Wal-Mart. Then in 2001, she saw some pieces another chainsaw artist created. That’s when she decided to switch gears.
“I worked there 11 years and there just had to be something else to do,” Sparks said. “I was not happy any more.”
Sparks took the opportunity to teach herself everything. It didn’t take her long to conquer working with a chainsaw, a tool she had never laid her hands on before in her life. Sparks has only had one accident with the chainsaw. The first time she used the tool it slipped and sliced a part of her protective chaps.
Sparks starts her creations by finding the right piece of wood, and Sparks is always looking for that special piece. She uses all types of wood, from cherry wood to driftwood and everything in between, always keeping her eye open wherever she goes.
“I like discovering the hidden secrets in the wood and the beauty in there,” she said.
Once Sparks has selected a piece of wood, she carves the outline of the piece with the chainsaw, giving the wood a very basic, rough shape. She then brings the piece into her workshop, where she refines the wood with chisels and drills. Next Sparks sands the wood out and starts to add paint. The whole process normally takes her about two to three weeks for an average-size piece.
Over the years, the self-taught artist has watched her sculptures get better and better. From her first sculpture of a grouse, that her husband thought was a chicken, to her latest undertaking of walking sticks, Sparks’ detail work has gotten more thorough and her pieces more elaborate.
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Sparks isn’t the only one who has seen improvement in her pieces.
“As far as the growth in her, her carvings, her design, execution and final product today, as opposed to when she first started, is absolutely incredible,” said Ron DeWitt, artisan services director at Tamarack.
The Beckley-based facility is home to various state artists, vintners, writers and cooks. Tamarack has served as a catalyst for many artisans to showcase their work. The foundation there administers a screening process of state artists to determine whose work stays and whose goes.
“We really like her work. We’ve used her work extensively in the gallery,” said Zan George, retail director at Tamarack. “I just think she’s got a great eye for form and substance.”
Being a wood sculptor hasn’t always come easy for the mother, grandmother and wife. A bout with breast cancer put her art on hold for a short time. But after recovering from the disease, Sparks jumped back into it. Overcoming challenges her own way, it seems as if no roadblock is too big for Sparks.
A sculpture of a woman Sparks is currently working on presented a problem when she came across a section of bad wood in her face. But Sparks didn’t let that deter her.
“You just have to find a way to work around that,” she said.
Sparks hopes to continue to work and even has shows in the coming months. But no matter how many different pieces she’s done over the years and how many different types of sculptures she has made, the one constant in Sparks’ work is how she begins a piece.
“She’s got this amazing ability to look at a chunk of nothing and see something in it,” George said.
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