A Brief History of
Simon O'Rourke
After gaining my degree with honours in Illustration; specialising in children's books, I became a tree surgeon for Acorn ArborCare... hmm; where's the connection? There isn't one really, but I needed a full time job, and wanted to slowly build up my illustration career outside of work.
I managed to get a children's book commission from a tree work customer which was published in America through Trafford Publishing. In the time that followed, I did not pursue my illustration career, but I realised I could actually be creative with the chainsaw and tried my hand at wood carving, and it seemed to work.
I now live in Wrexham, North Wales, with my lovely wife Liz. I carved for two years under the banner of Acorn Furniture and set up my own business in 2005, and have worked in a variety of public places and private gardens.
The combination of climbing and chainsaw skills learned during tree surgery have enabled me to produce chainsaw carvings from rope and harness and reach areas that scaffold cannot.
My chainsaw carving exploits have taken me as far as Dalkieth near Edinburgh, Scotland and Dorset, South England. I have also placed highly in chainsaw carving competitions in the USA, Japan and the UK where I competed in wood sculpting competitions on the west coast of America in Oregon and Washington, a competition near Nagoya in Japan, the biggest international competition in the UK, and charity carving events in Ridgway, Pensylvania.
I produce fine pieces of artwork in wood using a variety of power tools and hand tools. These works of art range from beautiful ladies in fine hardwoods to owls and other animals in hardwoods such as oak or or softwood such as cedar.
Competitions and demonstrations have included:
- Woodfest 2003/2004/2005/2006 at St Asaph (see links page)
- Wrexham science festival 2003
- English Open Chainsaw Carving Competition held on the Queen's estate at Sandringham. I won third place at this event, click here to read the BBC's coverage.
- The Ridgway chainsaw carvers rendezvous in Ridgway Pennsylvania.