The Kodiak family

About the artist: Cody Stosz

“It started with a second hand chainsaw and a tree that was getting too close to the house. Inspired by videos of chainsaw carvers the sentence “I bet I could do that” was replied with “give it a shot” and 1 month later Kodiak Carving was a fulltime bussiness. My grandfather started me carving soap when I was 8 years old. In middle-school and high-school I would take every carving class and woodworking course available. Sometimes 3 of my 5 classes a day were at the wood shop. It was the only class that I was truely excited to attend in school and I had some great teachers. After leaving high-school wood carving was a rare hobby for me and fell out of my life. I took up work with my family and began a career in construction. Years passed before I found a love of art again in the form of clay sculpture and committed myself to learning everything I could about it. Art became a way of relaxing after a week of work and I figured that’s where it would stand. That’s until the day I carved that first bear. Everything I had done leading to that first bear was a step towards the career path I was about to embark down. My mother’s father started me down the path at 8, my father’s ancestor, Veit Stoss, a renown carver of German churches, walked that path before us. I plan to follow it into the future.”