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Wednesday, November 15, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Father and son pursue wood carving
By Jodi Schneider McNamee
Correspondent
Paul Stark is a nationally
renowned wood carver. His
son Jon is carving out a name
for himself in the same trade.
Patricia Molesworth, who
has owned Village Interiors
Home Furnishings and
Design Center since 1991, is
longtime friends with Paul
Stark.
“We raised our kids
together and Paul’s son Jon,
also a chainsaw sculptor, is
very good friends with my
son,” said Molesworth. “Over
a year ago Jon began bringing
in his handcrafted benches
in my shop and now we are
very fortunate to have carved
wood sculptures from both
Paul and Jon.”
Paul has worked with
wood his whole life.
“My father was in the
woodworking business, so it
was natural for me to want to
be around wood,” said Stark.
In 1983, after attend-
ing the Portland Museum
art school, Stark moved to
Sisters and worked with mas-
ter wood carver J. Chester
“Skip” Armstrong, sanding
his sculptures.
“I figured out that I could
maneuver a chainsaw pretty
well, so I branched out on my
own,” he said.
In 1985 Stark created his
first chainsaw carving of
a sea lion while on a trip to
Oklahoma.
“Next I sculpted a giraffe
for my mother and it just
morphed from there,” Stark
told The Nugget.
Stark received some noto-
riety after carving a wood
sculpture for someone who
bought a log home from
Oregon Log Homes at the tail
end of the 1980s.
“After that it was mostly
through word-of-mouth,
and now I have pieces in
just about every state except
Alaska,” he said.
Stark lives half of the year
in Sisters and the other half
in New York, where he does
commission pieces.
His most recent chainsaw
project was a recognition of
Lake George, New York’s
area of the French and Indian
War history. The 24-foot
long sculpture depicts Robert
Rogers, who commanded the
famous Roger’s Rangers, and
five Mohicans paddling a
birch-bark-style canoe. The
canoe sculpture was unveiled
at Lake George Lakefront
Walkway last September.
Stark consulted with mem-
bers of the French and Indian
War Society to ensure the his-
torical accuracy of his details.
“It was the most involved
three-dimensional piece I’ve
ever created,” Stark said.
Stark’s son Jon, who
seems to be “a chip off the
old block,” moved to New
York to work with his dad
after graduating from Sisters
High School in 2000.
“I’d been cleaning up
dad’s sawdust my whole life,
and at some point, I picked up
the tool, tried it and decided
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER MCNAMEE
The individual work of woodcarvers Paul and Jon Stark is featured at Village Interiors.
that I enjoyed wood carving,”
Jon said, chuckling.
“In New York we both
worked on carvings together
for one of my dad’s cli-
ents, the Long Island Jewish
Hospital. They gave me my
first big break as a sculptor
by letting me carve sea shells
for a project for the hospital.”
Word-of-mouth is also
getting around for Jon Stark.
He recently carved a beauti-
ful larger-than-life cougar for
Mountain View High School
in Bend, where his wife,
Gillian, teaches science.
Two years ago, a light-
ning storm brought down an
old pine tree at the front of
the school, leaving behind a
stump. And Jon volunteered
to carve a mountain lion
sculpture out of the donated
piece of pine.
“It’s displayed outside on
the stump of the original tree.
I couldn’t have done it with-
out Dad’s help,” he said.
Featured side-by-side
in Village Interiors Home
Furnishings are two beau-
tifully carved wood sculp-
tures of eagles, one created
by Jon and one created by
Paul. Both are chain-sawed
from the same old ponder-
osa pine tree, one that died
and was cut down in front of
Bi-Mart.
The artists noted that they
did four carvings out of that
one tree.
Village Interiors is located
at 382 E. Hood Ave.
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