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Photos by Sarah Finnegan.
Justin Bailey carves a totem pole at Betty McArthur’s home. After the large red oak tree in McArthur’s yard was struck by lightning, McArthur instead decided to give the trunk a new purpose.
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After the sculpture was completed in September, McArthur said the Baileys’ work more than lived up to her expectations.
The sound of a chainsaw and the sight of sawdust flying brought a lot of curious neighbors to Betty McArthur’s front yard in mid-September. The source was Justin Bailey turning a tree into a piece of art.
“People bring their chairs up and sit and watch him work,” McArthur said when the project was still in progress.
McArthur, a retired nurse, has lived in central Vestavia Hills since the early 1990s. It was her husband, Dr. Frank McArthur, who first lived in Vestavia Hills and loved it. He passed away in 2013.
“He just loved how the house sits overlooking the valley, and the beauty of it and the quiet and the neighbors,” McArthur said.
A large red oak in McArthur’s front yard was recently hit by lightning. The tree’s limbs had to be cut away due to disease, but the large trunk remained solid. Not wanting to simply remove the long-standing tree, McArthur instead decided to give it a new purpose.
“Being an artist myself, I decided I would love to have a totem pole,” McArthur said.
It was by chance that she met Justin Bailey and his wife, Heather, when they were demonstrating their chainsaw carving skills in front of Bob’s Power Equipment on U.S. 31. She was immediately taken with their work and purchased the eagle sculpture Justin Bailey was working on that day.
Heather Bailey was actually the first of the pair to pick up a chainsaw in 2005, following in her mother’s footsteps. Justin Bailey met his wife while serving in the Marine Corps and decided to try his hand at sculpting in 2010. He picked up the skill quickly and decided to make a living out of it. Since then, he said he’s found a surprising amount of versatility in what he can sculpt. “I haven’t found something yet that I can’t [carve],” Justin Bailey said.
The Calera couple have different styles and strengths when it comes to wood-carving. When they’re given a project from a client, one will take the lead and the other will assist based on the client’s preferred style.
“Hers are a lot smoother; they’re a lot cuter. Mine are a lot more, I guess gruff, more focused on form, that kind of thing. Hers are more focused on texture,” Justin Bailey said.
However, they still make their projects a team effort when possible.
“Whenever we do a piece, we’re partners in all of it. She’s as talented as I am with a saw,” Justin Bailey said.
After meeting McArthur, Justin Bailey spent time at her house learning about her interests and the art that already decorates her home. He put together a sketch “that represented her and what I saw.” His vision for the totem pole incorporated McArthur’s love for Southwestern and Native American art with a bust of a Native American man. The pole also includes a raccoon, a bear, a deer and an owl at the top.
“I told him I wanted something that reflected the animals that we see up here on the mountain,” McArthur said.
Having a fellow artist as a client made the creative process much easier, Justin Bailey said.
“She has been wonderful. You couldn’t ask for a much better client. She understands art; she’s willing to let me pick the artistic inspire and run with it. That’s hard to find,” he said.
Despite the large black streak where lightning had seared its trunk, the red oak in McArthur’s yard was still solid and no more difficult to carve than a regular tree. Justin Bailey said he decided to leave some of the lightning damage on the carved deer to represent its history.
“I left a portion of that to kind of show the story of it,” he said.
When the sculpture was finished in late September, McArthur said it more than lived up to her expectations.
“The tree has just had so much character, and the project has turned out wonderful,” Justin Bailey agreed.
McArthur said she wants the totem pole to be something her grandchildren and neighbors’ children can enjoy. While the Baileys were carving, she said her favorite part was “the joy of my neighbors’ faces when they see this.”
“It’ll be here long after I’m gone for people to enjoy,” McArthur said.
Learn more about Justin and Heather Bailey’s artistic work at woodlotartisans.com.
