Have chainsaw, will carve

Kenneth Packie started carving full-time this summer behind Hall’s General Store in Otis, where he operates The Spotted Dog Wood Factory.
(Michael Kelley)
Kenneth Packie started carving full-time this summer behind Hall’s General Store in Otis, where he operates The Spotted Dog Wood Factory.

By Michael Kelley
mkelley@berkshirerecord.net

OTIS — Sometimes a career seems to come right out of the woodwork and for local chainsaw carver Kenneth Packie, this couldn’t be more true.
 
Packie formerly worked as telecommunications technician in New York City and Washington D.C., but in 2001, when his company went under, he and his wife, Ilona—a teacher at Farmington River Elementary School— decided life in the country was something they yearned for.
 
It was at a log home show in Hartford, Conn. that this chapter in Packie’s life started. At the show  he saw a man carving with chainsaws, and the rest is history.
 
“That planted the seed  as something I wanted to try to do,” he said.
 
Packie gave into his impulse, and in October 2005 attended a three-day chainsaw carving class in Washington state
 
“It kinda came out of nowhere,but when I started I knew this is what I wanted to do,” he said.
 
This past summer Packie started carving full-time and has secured a spot and barn behind Hall’s General Store on Route 23, where he operates the Spotted Dog Wood Factory.
 
An avid kayaker, rock climber, hiker and biker, Packie said he gets much of his inspiration from nature and the woods.
 
“I definitely enjoy working on wildlife scenes,” he said.
 
Some of these pieces include a 13-foot alligator, which is on display at Hall’s, a series of bear carvings of all sizes, owls, eagles, woodland animals, and even a fish that a young boy asked to be placed in his tree house.
 
For a long time, Packie refused to carve bears because he thought  they were overdone, but an opportunity for him to work with noted chainsaw artists, Jeff Samudosky of Columbia, Conn., and Ken Tynan, of Iowa, showed him otherwise.
 
“As soon I realized I could do them differently they were fun,” he said. “I denied myself for so long. If you can make them different and realistic, it is fun. People around here just love black bears.”
 
Now bear compositions make up some of his most popular pieces.
 
Packie, who gets most of his wood from local tree service companies, said he uses a large collection of nature and animal photographs as inspiration and reference, and that no preparation work — such as drawing or marking the wood — is done before he takes a chainsaw to it.
 
Most of his designs, however, come from his head.
 
Packie has entered some of his work in national chainsaw carving competition. An aquatic scene he created was the sixth highest auction piece at the 2007 Ridgeway Rendezvous in Pennsylvania, for example.  At that same competition this year, an African-themed piece he created — of a baboon defending his family from a leopard — was the second highest item to be auctioned off.
 
He is currently working on an aquatic-themed piece, complete with two dolphins playing and a turtle on top.
 
A lot of his pieces are commissioned, but many customers leave Packie with control over how the piece turns out.
 
“I like to be able to choose how they look,” he said. “No one has to take something they didn’t like. I don’t take deposits. They pay for it when they approve of it.”
 
Packie has had pieces sent to New Jersey—where he is from originally — New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio and California.
 
Locally, his work can be seen at Big Pond and Otis Reservoir in town.
 
“If I can do this for a living and pay my bills I will be happy,” he said. “I don’t expect to get rich from this. I just want to enjoy what I do.”
 
“This isn’t work,” he added. “I live in town so I only have to drive a few miles to come play with my tools.”

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