Art: Tree Carver

In the small town of Threerivers, Calif., the largest piece of wood carving in the U.S.* has been under way since last autumn. Dark-haired, muscular Sculptor Carroll Barnes has been chopping away at a 22-ton hunk of Sequoia gigantea (world's largest tree), gradually carving it into a gigantic statue of the lumberman's legendary hero, Paul Bunyan, and his blue ox, Babe. Last week, depressed by poor returns from his first one-man show in San Francisco, Barnes had a mind to hang a "war casualty" sign on Paul and get a job driving a tractor.

Iowa-born Carroll Barnes studied at Washington's Corcoran School...

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