Just after 6:00 a.m. Rob Banda pulled his truck and trailer for his business Rob’s Creations in front of Wallace Elementary School in Lake Highlands, and got to work setting up scaffolding and laying out 6 chainsaws of all sizes on a table.
“I try to beat the sun,” Banda said about the pre-sunrise start. “Oh, the neighbors? If they ain’t awake yet, they’re about to be awake!”
Banda fired up the biggest chainsaw he has; a Stihl 880. The motor sounded like a Harley. He started making the first cuts into the stump of what was a red oak tree in the school’s front entrance.
“Right now, it looks like a disaster, but it’s not. I got it up here,” Banda said, pointing to his temple. “It’s gonna be a wolf.”
That’s the mascot for Wallace Elementary School.
“I didn’t expect to be a carver, really,” Banda said. “It just kinda fell on my lap, and here I am!”
Banda is a self-taught chainsaw artist. He learned from watching the 2012 TV series, ‘Saw Dogs.’
“It took me a long time to call myself an artist,” Banda said, covered in sawdust.
“Every chainsaw carver is an artist. I mean, you can be a carver or you can be an artist. I choose to be an artist.”
The school’s PTA commissioned the piece, trying to bring new life to the beloved old tree that stood until a deep freeze killed it.
“It was such a beautiful entrance, this tree,” Wallace Elementary PTA President Lorin Anderson said. “We could still turn it around and have something really meaningful, really wonderful, and frankly joyful, and just good old plain fun!”
Rising 5th grader Nick Christian heard the chainsaw and came to check out what was happening.
“He’s really going at it,” Christian said, watching Banda carve. “Because we’re competitors with the other school down the street… I really feel like we can outdo them with this ’cause this is gonna be really cool!”
“I love doing it,” Banda said. “Hopefully it leaves, like, a ‘wow’ factor for them, you know? That’s what I want.”
Banda has done chainsaw carvings across Texas. Where most see a tree stump, he sees a blank canvas.
“I mean, I see wildlife. I see a lot potential,” Banda said. “When I drive around, I see tree stumps like this, I’m always thinking, ‘Oh, they’re about to call me!'”
