U.S. Navy veteran Terry Phillips has tree made into eagle, bear art – Massillon Independent

JACKSON TWP. – An always patriotic Terry Phillips was a bit tired of looking at the falling leaves from the large maple tree in his front yard.

So he decided to make a change.

In May, Phillips hired a chainsaw woodcarver to help transform the tree into a Y-shaped piece of art, consisting two bald eagles on each end and a grizzly bear at the base.

More: Why are colorful pandemic trees popping up across Canton?

“There’s all this negative (political) stuff out there. So I thought there isn’t anything better than the two eagles,” Phillips said about the piece, which was designed by Lumberjack Chainsaw Art.

“I didn’t want just a stump sitting there looking like nothing.” 

Woodcarver Jack Riese, of Massillon, is the artist who shaped Phillips’ tree, which stands around 10-feet tall. He said the job took two-consecutive days to complete.

“We carve it the first day and then come back the next to paint,” said Riese, who’s been in the woodcarving art business for a little more than 20 years.

The profession seems to keep Riese quite busy. He said he averages about two jobs per week and charges a rate of $150 per foot.

The most popular pieces right now among customers are bears and eagles, according to Riese, who said he’s received a number of unique requests over the years.

“Whatever you want we put on it,” he said. “One year I did the flying monkeys from the `Wizard of Oz.'”

The two eagles and bear in Phillip’s yard should have quite a lifespan, lasting as long as the tree stands, he said.

The final product has garnered attention among neighbors and passersby.

“A lot of people have been coming by taking (cellphone) pictures,” Phillips said.

Phillips is a 1961 graduate of Washington High School who went on to serve four years in the U.S. Navy. He was a supply specialist from 1961 to 1965, earning the rank of petty officer.

He was assigned to the USS Betelgeuse, an attack-class cargo vessel, and was on a training assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Phillips isn’t the only area resident with a new piece of wooden artwork in his front yard.

Carroll County sisters debut bear tree

When a box truck struck a large tree on Election Day in the front yard of a family home in Center Township in Carroll County, two sisters put their minds together.

Amy and Anne Rutledge, who reside at 1600 Canton Road NW, took weeks to figure out how to remedy the eyesore stemming from their broken tree.

“We heard a major thud at 4 in the morning that (November) day,” recalled Amy Rutledge. “We wanted to do something special, so this was it.”

Last week, the Rutledge sisters hired a woodcarver from Scio to shape a mama bear and two cubs from what remained of the tree. The carving took three days to complete and stands between 8 feet and 9 feet.

They call the piece “Pat the Mama Bear,”  named in honor of their mother. The two cubs are symbolic of daughters Amy and Anne.

“The whole thing has been quite a hit among the drivers who notice,” Amy Rutledge said. “People have been stopping for a longer look and taking (pictures), too.”

Reach Steven at steven.grazier@indeonline.com.

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