CALABASAS, Calif. — Several years ago, someone driving down Kanan-Dume Road in Malibu may have seen Stacy Poitras carving wood on the side of the road with a chainsaw. He sold wooden statues to those curious enough to stop.

“I started out like any self-respecting chainsaw artist starts out,” Poitras explained. “You make these cartoon-like bears. We call them ‘welcome bears.’”

Those are the bears, said Poitras, that someone might place on their front porch. The wooden creature is holding a sign telling visitors they are “welcome.”

“Or that you’ve ‘gone fishin’,” said Poitras. “You cannot make enough of those. They were going out the door constantly, at $100 bucks a pop, $200 bucks a pop. I was good at it, and it was easy money.”

But Poitras said he was working so hard that he was getting nerve damage from constantly gripping a vibrating power tool. And he said he never wanted to carve forest creatures in the first place.

“I got tired of doing that,” said Poitras. “I wanted to carve something of more substance.”

Poitras said he came into his own “renaissance.” He vowed to never carve “cartoons.”

He retreated to a Calabasas shop, conveniently located next to a tree-removal service, where he let his genuine passion and chainsaw fly.

On a sunny day, Poitras hacked away at a life-sized wooden figure with his chainsaw. He wore ear buds and listened to rock music as he took furious swipes at her midsection, sometimes using one hand and twisting the machine in a fluid motion. All the while saw dust flew about him.

He went from carving bears to carving bare breasts. Poitras now carves semi-nude woman and skeletons, among other things.

“I’ve always been attracted to skulls,” said Poitras. “They’re beautiful. They’re always happy. They’re always smiling. They’re always in a good mood.”

He also augments his work by using a “Dremel” (a small rotary grinder) for detailed work, as well as a blowtorch to darken the wood.

Chainsaw carving is not novel. According to the book, “The Art of Chainsaw Carving,” the craft goes back to the 1950s, when power saws became light enough for one person to handle.

A search on YouTube will reveal hundreds of examples of people showing the art form. One channel promises to teach viewers how to carve a “four-foot welcome bear in four minutes.”

But, at some point, Poitras decided he was no longer a “chainsaw carver.” Rather, he now sees himself as a “chainsaw sculptor.” He studied human anatomy, for example, better to make those wooden renditions of skeletons that he so appreciates.

“Carving bears is a ‘craft,’” Poitras said. “I do art.”

One of his collections was called “Seven Deadly Sins,” wherein he sculpted life-sized human beings, each showing “greed” or “lust” or “sloth,” and so forth.

And like any artist, Poitras puts his blood, sweat and tears into his work—literally.

“I drew some of my own blood and used it for her lipstick,” said Poitras, standing in front of a sculpture of a woman. “And it was the most beautiful red color I had ever seen.”

But Poitras said it faded to a brown color after about an hour. So now he just uses red paint like every other artist, which is what Poitras wanted to do in the first place—paint.

In the 1980s, he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Poitras said he had every intention of becoming a famous painter.

“I never wanted to be a sculptor,” said Poitras, who stopped his chainsaw long enough to sit for an interview in a chair carved from a tree stump. “I had no interest in sculpting at all. I didn’t want to get all dusty and dirty,” said Poitras as he brushed sawdust from his sweater.

But, one day while walking to art class, Poitras saw someone on the side of the road carving a bear, and he gave it a try. He dropped out of art school and traded a dainty brush for a dangerous power tool. And after his sugary-bear phase, Poitras has now become a chainsaw sculptor of note. A cable reality TV show featured Poitras. And even rapper Snoop Dogg gave Poitras a thumbs-up—literally.

After Poitras posted a video of his work on Instagram, the hip-hop artist gave the wood sculptor a “thumb’s-up” emoji. That video got three million views.

A famous fashion designer hired Poitras to make life-sized wooden sculptures of his super models.  

“This woman is a model named Leticia Berhower,” said Poitras, gazing at his work. “She’s wearing an Alexander McQueen dress.”

Poitras has come a long way from when he was making a couple hundred bucks a pop for one of those “welcome bears.” Some of his work now fetches around $25,000.

And it is all because Poitras made an artistic choice.

“You know, some people like to jump out of airplanes,” said Poitras. “I like to carve with a chainsaw and possibly cut my arm off.”