Alissa Bartling – Chainsaw Artist Alissa Bartling has always been an artistic person but in high school she saw a chainsaw artist at Riverboat Days and she was hooked. It wasn’t immediate that she started taking a chainsaw to pieces of wood but it definitely peaked her interest; made her want a chainsaw so she could take one to a piece of wood. Life moved on. Alissa went to college, met and married her husband Chris, works as the Marketing Coordinator for Security Bank. And then a few years ago, her husband Chris bought her a chainsaw. Alissa worked slow at first, getting to understand the chainsaw and how to work with it in such detail. She started with practice projects and just kept working at it until she was making Christmas gifts. From there she started making things for donations to the Cedar Catholic school gala and name logs. As she’s progressed, so have her projects and so has the interest in her work. Alissa has gone from smaller projects to working on larger ones, such as a large sculpture she did for a horse barn. At the time of the writing of this article, Alissa is working on characters, a pig for one. And she is also working on a Cardinal log for the Legion Riders that features an eagle, which is a part of their logo. But the sky is the limit for Alissa, she does on-sight projects and sometimes videotapes them. “Sometimes it amazes people a little that I’m a woman doing this.” Alissa said that she “needs the ability to work with her hands.” It’s a drive she has and sometimes she gets lost in making a piece because Expert health care FOR ALL AGES Amanda Duxbury, MD, Heather Kleeman, DO, Mary Jo Olson, MD, and Anastasia Searcy, DO, Family Medicine; Chan Park, MD, General Surgery Make a personal, lifelong connection with the physicians at Sanford Vermillion. Our team specializes in preventive care, diagnosis and management of chronic conditions as well as general surgery. Call (605) 677-3700 to schedule an appointment. 018027-00342 6/17 10vHERVOICEvSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017