Chainsaw Carvers

Gary Keenan has been chainsaw carving for 25 years. All his adult life he's appreciated art, but especially sculpture. He would often admire a sculpture while saying to himself, "I know I could do that, it wouldn't be hard to do". In 2000, a friend had seen the chainsaw carving at the Iowa State Fair and said that it was "very cool" to watch the process. I had heard of it, but had never seen it done. He commented that "I think I could do that". They essentially laughed at him, and challenged him to carve something. The following weekend he carved a fish from a log, it was crude and a slow process....but he was intrigued with it and started experimenting with it on weekends. Four years later he gave up his "day job".....with no looking back as he loves doing this. He have been carving at the Iowa State Fair for over 15 years.

Carving for the Iowa State Fair has certainly been a privilege. In recent years he has teamed up with T.J. Jenkins and Clint Henik, as some of his goals have been to add variety, have some carving going on nearly anytime throughout the day, and be more available to Fairgoers.