Richard Chaney lives on a sprawling farm off of Greenock Road in Lothian. He hails from a long line of Chaneys that have lived in the area for generations.
The old property has a main farmhouse - replete with wraparound porch - a long, winding driveway and a few outbuildings.
One of the outbuildings - a former sheep barn - has been converted into a workspace, shop and gallery for Richard and his unique collection of finished chainsaw wood sculptures, which he sells to the public.
Richard said that when he was in high school, he went to work for his father at Chaney Enterprises. After a while, he ended up with his own firm, an ice-delivery company called On the Rocks.
As an ice-delivery man, Richard made drop-offs at restaurants, bars and hotels throughout the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metro areas.
One of the people he met in his line of work was Gary Fick, the owner and chef at The Crossing at Casey Jones restaurant in La Plata in Charles County. Gary would order large pieces of ice from Richard to create ice sculpture centerpieces for his catering business.
Richard said that he had previously taken an interest in ice sculpting when he was about 18 years old.
"My mom took me to Baltimore to see an ice-carving show," Richard said.
Richard was about 30 years old when hemet Gary, but immediately took an interest in the nuts and bolts of using a chainsaw to create ice sculptures.
Richard said that Gary showed him how to do it, and it wasn't long before Richard was taking on work as an ice artist for hotels in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. He even created sculptures for special events - like the Naval Academy graduation ceremony.
Although he had no formal training in either art or food service, Richard was talented enough to take on exhibition work, too, where a venue would hire him to create a sculpture out of a block of ice in front of a live audience.
"I've done that all over - at fairgrounds and the like," Richard said.
"But the frustrating thing about ice is that you don't get to keep the result of your labor for too long," he said.
It melts.
So Richard turned to wood. Since he lived on a farm and knew plenty of other south county families that had downed trees, he began practicing his chainsaw craft on wood. He uses any kind of wood - oak, cherry, cypress, mahogany.
"Anything really except pine," Richard said.
It has been about 15 years now since he made the switch from ice to wood. He has since sold the ice delivery company, given up most of the ice sculpting work and converted his energy to being a wood sculpture artist.
The converted sheep barn is filled with all sorts of interesting sculptures. There are fish, birds, bears, an alligator with plenty of sharp teeth, mobiles, furnishings and more. The pieces sell for anywhere from $40 for a small whale to $3,000 for the large bear that sits out in front of the shop.
The pieces are surprisingly detailed.
Richard's philosophy is that the wood determines what the end product will be. A curved piece of wood that came out of the center of a rotted tree becomes an arced, jumping fish - with a knot in the wood serving in the perfect spot as the eye. A multihued piece of red cedar became a turtle, with the white knuckles of the wood becoming the turtle scutes of the carapace.
A downed tree that had two branches splitting out from the center got turned upside down to become a bear with two separate legs.
Chaney calls his work "finished chainsaw carving" because each piece is completed with a sanding that gives it a soft finish, not the rough edges and corners of most chainsaw wood sculptures.
Chaney opens his shop to the public on Saturdays at 5402 Greenock Road in Lothian. He also has a Web site at www.wildwooddecor.com. His work is also available for show and sale at local restaurants: Neptunes in North Beach and Thursdays in Galesville.
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