t s o Lin the Wood
Chainsaw Artist Steve Tresvik by Mimi Greenwood Knight
STEVE TRESVIK IS A TRAFFIC HAZARD. If you’ve been driving down Highway 25 in Covington and found yourself whipping around to see one of his towering chainsaw carvings, you know what I mean. Any thought of the road or cars ahead is gone, as you flash past a family of black bears scampering around a tree trunk or a ten-foot alligator captured in mid-dive. After engaging in some precarious rubbernecking myself, I decided it was time for a closer look before I initiated a nine-car pile-up. What I found when I finally stopped was Steve Tresvik, a soft-spoken New York transplant who remains modest about his work, despite an outpouring of praise from his new northshore neighbors. I found an interesting back story, too. Tresvik started life in Rifton, New York, a rural hamlet of a few hundred souls. As one of four sons of a stay-at-home mom and a dad he says was a “jack of all trades,” he spent his early years exploring the woods with his brothers and developing a love of nature. Tresvik entered the U.S. Navy toward the end of the Vietnam War with the dream of becoming a Navy Seal. As fate would have it though, a medical
condition precluded that dream and changed the trajectory of his life. Tresvik was assigned instead to kitchen duty, where he discovered a talent for cooking. After four years in the Navy, he enrolled in the prestigious Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, New York, and, over the next 40 years, happily worked as a chef for Hyatt Hotels in 13 major U.S. cities. During stints in locales from Los Angeles to Tampa and Seattle to New Orleans, he developed a knack for carving showstopping ice sculptures for special events. As his cooking and his ice sculpture skills sharpened, he was called upon to cater VIP events for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and the Ambassador of Japan. He served dinners in the East Room of the White House and the Nixon Library—and even catered Richard Nixon’s funeral, with five living U.S. presidents in attendance. “I catered too many grand openings and VIP events to remember, including six Super Bowls,” says Tresvik. “I started carving ice sculptures with a simple fiveprong chipper. It was grueling work, and, by the time I finished, my hands would be bloody. At one point, I worked with a professional chainsaw artist from Japan, who taught me and guided me in buying professional ice sculpting tools.” Steve’s >>
photos: PAIGE HENDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY www.bellus.photography
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