Comanche City Park has been turned into an outdoor art gallery. Among the playground equipment and picnic tables are 10 chainsaw sculptures carved out of the stumps of dead trees.
“We lost about 200 trees to oak wilt,” says a city park official. “We’ve tried to save as many as we can.”
Four years ago, Eddie Parker, a local teacher, hit on the idea of turning the unsightly stumps into art. He called Cam Dockery, a noted chainsaw sculptor from Whitharral, a small community northwest of Lubbock. “Eddie sets up a sponsor and calls me with a theme,” Dockery says. Then he drives four hours to Comanche. So far Dockery has done sculptures for the Lions Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Future Farmers of America, a car club, and other organizations. His latest was for a Vietnam veterans’ organization. He also did one with raccoons crawling around the tree stump.
The 50-acre park is still filled with stately pecans and oaks, but there are several dead trees waiting for Dockery’s chainsaw magic. Most designs can be done in less than eight hours. It usually takes longer to apply the sealant than to make the image.
Cam Dockery’s work can be seen all over the state including at the Houston Zoo, Gaines County Golf Course, Junction City Park, and Cook-Walden Memorial Park in Austin. To see Dockery’s work online, go to www.texassaw.com. Comanche City Park is west of downtown off U.S. 377.
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This article appears in September 30 • 2016.
