This years contest was a blast!  6 carvers, 6 logs, a whole weekend of chainsaw mayhem!   I had just a little time to make a masterpiece and had my father Greg Anderson help me.  I had no Idea I would turn out my best sculpture to date.   I will be making a scale model of this carving out of spruce the same size as soon as I get the wood for it.  You can see the progress of this sculpture at my workplace in Indian Alaska.  It will be up for sale for $7000.  I also make whales of various sizes and poses.

The log-

Once all the carvers were done drawing logs for the competition, I knew that my piece was going to be special, but had no idea how beautiful! I started with the calf humpback whale then the mother whale. I had a lot of wood left to make a pretty decent splash or wave. “There was just something missing” I thought.   The next morning which was day 2 of the contest, I saw a Sea Otter pop out of the water next to a Seagull then I thought that is what I can do with the extra wood I have left “Sea Birds”.  I started thinking about past experiences on the water and the variety of  winged life that are native to Alaska in the summer.   The two birds I never had seen carved before are what I decided to sculpt a flying Cormerant and Seagull propelling themselves away from the giagantic Humpback Whales! I then shaped the fins on the Whales to make it look like they are trying to fly as well.  Hence the theme I came up with “Flying Sea”.