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You

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Just in Howlin is a world-class chainsaw artist and the creative force behind Griswortz.

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We carved competitively, you know, and we would start getting good and we traveled around the country.

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We carved out a world level for a while.

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Armed with nothing but a roaring chainsaw and a sculptor's vision, Justin breathes life into raw wood, transforming forgotten logs into wildlife masterpieces.

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You can visualize it and with the chainsaw you can get rid of all the wood and find it inside of there.

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I'm looking at his ear and making sure they're balanced.

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I find where his eyes are, and I cut those out and then I shape his nose.

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Justin first started to hone his artistic skills at an early age.

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His dedication and natural ability set him apart.

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In high school he was an award-winning pencil artist.

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This is what I'm seeing when I'm carving.

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I wanted to be a professional artist, but after high school I didn't really have the means to achieve that.

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And when I found chainsaw carving, I thought this might be my chance to be a professional artist.

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I was comfortable with the chainsaw and I had some artistic ability.

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I just kind of put two and two together.

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Without any formal training, Justin set out to carve his first bear.

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I carved that whole six-foot barrier over the course of about three days.

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It wasn't as great as what I envisioned.

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To me it looked like a guy in a Mickey Mouse suit.

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Within a few years Justin perfected his craft.

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I wanted to do it so bad and I wanted to be good at it.

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Then when I figured that we were onto something, we had, I think, sixty-some people waiting for our carving.

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Justin left his concrete finishing job and cemented his future.

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I think I'm going to stay home and try this chainsaw carving for a while.

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They kind of laughed at me.

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His world now revolves around the humble basau and the soul of the wood.

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They thought I was crazy to try to be an artist for a living.

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It's like, yeah, it's working.

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For more than twenty-six years Justin has created thousands of carvings.

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The piles of sawdust and wood scraps are testament to his art.

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We've got stuff all over the country, all over the world really.

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We carved one last year that was twenty-four and a half feet tall.

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It's a wildlife collage.

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I like working on the really big ones because I have a lot of big logs to work with and I really enjoy the end product that has a presence.

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We do a lot of like thirty-six inch wide by ten foot tall grizzly bears and stuff like that.

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This hand forged art also caught the attention of the hit TV show Extreme Makeover.

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They asked us if we would do a carving for the show.

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A firefighter with a full gear and a mask.

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He had a baby that was wrapped in a blanket.

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He'd done gun fighters and warriors and gladiators.

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The gladiator is his most cherished, built hand in hand with his brother.

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It was like six and a half feet tall, but then we carved cedar armor for it.

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He had steel weapons that were made out of farm implements.

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That was probably my favorite project.

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Hidden from the highway's steady rush, Justin's secluded outdoor gallery unveils a collection of handcrafted art.

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People will stop and they'll say, we didn't know there was a lot of stuff here.

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It is our private property. We want people to enjoy it.

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For Justin, carving is no longer just a pastime.

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He is a true artisan of the North Woods.

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I still enjoy it, especially when you're going to get into a really big piece of wood and you've got to use a really big saw to get the big pieces off right away.

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To be an artist every day is what motivates me.

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You