RAPID CITY, S.D.– The black hills are home to many talented artists – including one who uses trees as his canvas.

And his brush? A chainsaw.

You can see their creations throughout the Black Hills such as in Keystone, Hill City, and now in Rapid City. Dahl’s Chainsaw Art has officially set up a new location right outside Uptown Rapid. Just in time for the holiday shopping season, owner Jarrett Dahl has opened up a new space right across from Texas Roadhouse for showcasing his chainsaw sculptures. “We think it is going to be a great opportunity to get in front of more people throughout the Christmas season,” he explained.”And then kind of over the winter, we plan on tying in some other sculptures like ice sculptures, snow sculptures and maybe a few other things too, so we are pretty excited about it.”

Jarrett first started sculpting with chainsaws thanks to some friends during a trip to Alaska, and worked with ice and snow during trips back home to Minnesota. “With the ability or the option to use a chainsaw as opposed to some of these other tools, you’re able to remove wood or ice or snow very, very quickly,” he said. “So that is something that definitely excites me as far as the art form goes. And it is limitless when it comes to different things you can do”

He set up the first shop in Keystone after trips to Sturgis showcasing his art for the rally before expanding. And that the decision to come to Rapid City was made after seeing the empty building after helping a friend’s business move into the mall. “It is a fairly good sized piece of property here. So we are going to utilize it as much as we can,” he added. “As far as having demos or carving large sculptures here, we feel like that is a pretty big part of it too. You know, it just kind of adds to the atmosphere as far as having multiple different artists here carving and and creating art.”