Sylvan Abbey Eagle - Clearwater, FL
Posted by: 
debbado
N 27° 59.808 W 082° 43.205
17R E 330857 N 3098039
One of the many wood carvings in this cemetery by artist Keith Carroll.
Waymark Code: WM5R3P
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 02/05/2009
Views: 11
Located in the Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater.
According to (
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The menagerie, and the other tree trunk critters in the park, is the work of Brevard County artist Keith Carroll who uses a couple of older model Stihl chainsaws, one large chainsaw with anywhere from a 20-inch to a 36-inch bar to cut the bulk of the trunk away from the creature inside and one smaller one with a 14-inch bar for more detailed work.
“A friend of mine was doing chain saw sculptures,” Carroll said. “I was an assistant pastor at a church and needed something part-time to help support myself. When I asked him about it, he said that it was funny but he’d been praying about asking me himself.”
Carroll said his friend sold him his equipment and moved out of state.
“I fumbled my way through it,” Carroll said with a laugh recalling his first attempts. Carroll said he was a cosmetologist at one point and cut hair, but that was the extent of his sculpting experience.
Fifteen years later, Carroll’s work is in parks, cemeteries and private collections around the state, and he’s done a couple of pieces for clients out west. Carroll said he can work with just about any hard wood including sable palm and that he completes most sculptures within one day.
Carroll explained that people sometimes buy cemetery plots because of the trees nearby and then get upset when the trees die because of lightning or disease. Turning them into sculptures rather than removing them completely eases the additional grief.
“One woman called to thank me,” Carroll said. “Her dad ended up being buried near a heron I did, and he had been a woodcarver.”