PORT TOWNSEND — A series of recent windstorms knocked down several trees in Peg Brewer’s front yard, leaving a large stump from the largest.
Brewer wanted do something special, and she remembered seeing a truck driving around town advertising chain saw art.
Brewer, 85, wrote down the phone number on the side of the truck the next time she saw it.
The phone call summoned chain-saw artist Steve Backus of Whidbey Island.
He met Brewer, saw the stump and decided that the most fitting object was . . . a ladybug.
“I didn’t want a bear,” Brewer said.
“I liked the idea of a ladybug, although a real ladybug has a black head.”
The carved version has a varnished head, which makes the black eyes easier to see.
While Backus supervised the job, his daughter, Chelsey, 21, did most of the sculpting in what was her first commissioned work.
“This young lady is a third-generation chain-saw artist because the business was started by her grandmother,” Brewer said.
“I was happy that I could help her to start her career.”
