They say the devil is in the details. Perhaps that’s why Griffon Ramsey is drawn to demonic subjects like Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist and Pennywise from It when carving her intricate wood, pumpkin, and ice designs with a chainsaw.
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Ramsey first became curious about carving when she watched her grandfather whittle wood as a hobby. Her interest only grew as she saw artists perform with power tools for crowds. “On the Oregon coast, chainsaw carving is kind of a tourist thing,” she says. “After I saw [them make] totem poles, I was totally fascinated.”
Although she’d forged an art-based career in set design, movie makeup, and video production, Ramsey didn’t try carving with a chainsaw until her early 30s, when she was making a bold video for her new YouTube channel in 2011. “I just wanted to stand out,” she says of that first demonstration. “But then I got addicted to it.”
Ramsey now crafts her pieces from a combination of tools, such as angle grinders, finger sanders, and power gouges. For most of her wooden artwork, she utilizes Eastern red cedar in her Southeast Austin workshop. While the artist carves all kinds of shapes into her various mediums, her subjects tend to be on the darker side, such as skulls, aliens, and horror movie characters like Greta from The Gremlins.
These pop culture images command a lot of attention on her Instagram page—which has more than 125,000 followers—especially around Halloween. But because the characters are so well known, their carvings also require a high level of precision: “The challenge there is that people have a real expectation for what it looks like,” she says. “I can make a dragon that looks kind of like anything and it’s still a dragon, but if I want to do Annabelle, Annabelle has a specific look.”
In addition to selling commissioned and freestyle pieces, Ramsey is drawn to the performative side of the business. She has competed in international chainsaw-carving competitions and was featured on the Food Network show Outrageous Pumpkins last fall. The sculpture artist enjoys doing demonstrations for crowds in Central Texas, and this season, she is teaching her second chainsaw-carving workshop for women at Pioneer Farms.
While her work is always stimulating, Ramsey notes the level of stamina required to carve for more than a couple of hours with 7- to 10-pound chainsaws. Plus, it does come with its fair share of occupational hazards. Although she hasn’t gravely injured herself yet, the artist has broken her knuckles with dive grinders and has a scar due to an accident with an angle grinder. “It’s not for the weak or the frightened, I suppose,” she says.
An Austin antiques dealer bought it for $34.99 and tracked down its history, which includes a Bavarian king and a case of wartime looting.
Through his scrumptious still lifes, the illustrator highlights the local haunts he's fallen in love with.
With all the spirited events happening this month, it can be hard to choose. Here are the ones we have on our radar.
1712 Rio Grande Street, Suite 100 Austin, TX 78701
Website by Web Publisher PRO
1712 Rio Grande Street, Suite 100 Austin, TX 78701
Website by Web Publisher PRO