Josh Kerr

An artisan’s story

The brightness of dreams is sometimes born from the darkness of sorrow and the difficulty of change. 

     This is the story of Josh Kerr. The story of his dreams, the sorrows that lead him to his dreams, and his fierce work ethic that nurtures the dreams. It is the story of the importance of believing “There is more…” It is the story of the importance of who you know, love and respect.

Josh grew up in small town in rural upstate New York, near the Adirondack Mountains. He was surrounded by family who worked hard. He remembers going to help his uncles lay carpet and flooring when he was just a kid. In addition to his family, Josh had a very special friend, Jim Petrillo. He met Jim when he was four or five years old. “He was a father figure for me growing up. I always really respected that man,” Josh said. 

Jim was a wood carver and a leader in the community. He even opened a store from which he and other local wood carving artist in the area sold their work. Although Josh never carved wood with Jim, he appreciated how important it was in Jim’s life. He also respected how Jim had built a business bringing competitive carvers together as a community. 

Jim died in November of 2010. His death was a deep emotional loss for Josh. Every day after Jim’s death he drove to work right past Jim’s home. “I was fine during the week, but every Sunday when I went by I filled up with tears. It happened every Sunday,” Josh remembered. 

Finally, he decided to drop in to see Jim’s widow. He saw that she was overwhelmed with grief and with work that she knew nothing about. Josh started helping her around the house and with the business.

Helping Jim’s widow was like helping his old friend. It also helped him deal with his grief. “When I started helping her, I stopped feeling that emotional downpour ever Sunday.” He and his wife also named their son, who was born in 2012, James. It was another way to honor his friend and keep a little bit of him in his life.

Although Josh was working fulltime as a Customer Service Rep during this period, he began spending more and more time at Jim’s wood carving shop. The more time he spent, the more he learned about the business of carving, the many different carvers, and their various styles. 

He also learned about marketing by interacting with customers at Jim’s old store and talking with them about their preferences. He saw what sold and what did not. He started redoing displays and paying attention to how customers reacted. What displays helped sales, which ones did not. Out of grief came an excitement about learning and knowing, “This is something I can do.” 

It wasn’t just the business of selling wood carving that was pulling at Josh. He said, “Something was inside me. I felt I really had to try it.”  The “It” was wood carving.  Perhaps Jim-the friend, the respected father figure, the woodcarver-was “inside him.” It was the embryo of a dream.

The first wood carving with a chainsaw that Josh did, he felt at home. He knew what he was doing. “This is what I am supposed to do,” he thought. It was a thought that changed his life. He had worked laying carpet and flooring in homes and businesses. He went to college in civil engineering. He had been a carpenter and contractor. He had worked in the service business. It seemed that everything Josh had learned and done in his life prepared him for this change.

He left all of these comfortable familiar businesses, turned his life upside down, and decided to become a chainsaw artist.

Grief about Jim led to dreams about a different future and then led to changes in his life and his family’s life. 

This change was hard. When he showed a fellow carver his first carving. Josh didn’t get welcomed into the brotherhood of the craft. The man just shook his head and said, “All we need is another chainsaw carver…” 

His journey as a wood artist was a lonely one. He said with a sadness in his voice, “I was shunned by that community. My journey was very much on my own. I had to learn on my own.”  

Every day Josh studied, practiced and learned on his own about this art form. He figured out how to do chainsaw carving demonstrations in the quickest and safest way. He made mistakes along the way, but he learned from every one. 

His support in this new calling came from his family and his customers, not his fellow artists. He started selling his work at area shows and events. “I learned a lot from these shows and events talking to my customers. Sometimes I would stand back from the booth and listen to the comments of those looking at the work,” he said. 

Josh listened and learned. He changed his carvings to suit his customers’ tastes. They bought more. He learned the difficult art of pricing. They bought more. He started building up a following of return customers. It was guerilla marketing 101. Know your customer. Continue to strive for better and unique. They will buy more.

Many carvers stick with just doing chainsaw carvings. Josh began to branch out and do some furniture and art pieces. It was fun to breakaway from the chainsaw carving and do something different. Furniture and art pieces were when he would get “lost in my own little world. Art pieces are more organic,” he said. 

Josh also found that he really enjoyed on-site work. Again, it’s about listening to the customer. On-site work can be at the customer’s home or the customer can come to Josh’s workshop and be there for the carving. The piece is done with the future owner right there watching and making suggestions. 

In this joint process, Josh finds out what the customer wants in the wood carving. He looks at the wood to get a feeling of what it is telling him.  Yes, wood talks to Josh. Josh then does a sketch of what he thinks would look best. He shows it to the customer. “I’m really proud that my customers trust me and go with my ideas,” he said. Maybe that’s because he honestly listens to what the customer wants, to what the wood ‘says,’ and then enhances that with his own artistic ideas. It’s a great partnership.

Despite Josh’s success as a chainsaw artist and his joy in the work, there was a sadness. In the background was the memory of his friend Jim, who had built a business for all carvers to come together. He remembered, “After his death, they broke it all apart. They completely divided the whole thing. It was frustrating.” 

Because of Jim, Josh knew “there could be more.” He came to the realization that “For me, New York never felt like a home. We didn’t fit in where we were. It felt like the town didn’t want us to be there.” It occurred to him and his family: “Did we want to be here?” The answer for his family was “no.” They wanted to be in a community in which their dreams could flourish. 

His wife began looking for farm properties in North Carolina, where Josh’s younger brother lives. They thought they had found the perfect place in North Carolina, but as they were getting in the car to come down to see it, they found out it was sold. His wife then flagged Windmill Farm in the Silverstreet area of Newberry County and lands in Laurens and Greenwood Counties. They came down in January of 2018.

Windmill Farm, where Mr. Charlie Senn had lived, was the second place they visited that trip. Josh remembered, “Once I saw it, I didn’t want to leave.” It was perfect for his business, all his business dreams, and his family. There was one problem: money. Josh thought the amount of loan for which they were approved would have been an insult as an offer. Josh and his family went home frustrated. They changed banks, restructured their loan, and came back with an offer, which the Senn family accepted in June 2018. Eleven acres with trees and pastures, a home, several outbuildings and a barn in Silverstreet, SC now belonged to Josh and his family. (The property was held in the Pettus H. Senn Trust.)

It took almost a year and 17 trips back and forth to upstate New York and Windmill Farm to completely move his wood carving business and his family to Newberry County. Each of these trips included four days of travel. You do the math. In the meantime, Josh was still maintaining his business. Change is hard work.

Despite the difficulties, Josh and his family kept their eyes on their dream. Josh said, 

“The land pulled us here. I’ve never felt this kind of peace on a piece of land before. This is where we are supposed to be.” 

It should be made clear that he and his family didn’t just fall in love with Windmill Farm. There were also sound business reasons to desire this property and its location. It was important that the property had a home for them, and that it was three hours from several major markets for his work. It was also close enough to the interstate that even his former New York customers could stop by on the way to Florida and back. (It’s already happened.)

The outbuildings and barn were also important in his dream and master plan. He and his brother Ricky have spent hours renovating the outbuilding that he chose to be his shop. From tearing down walls, to putting in new supports, to pouring a concrete floor, the building has been totally rehabbed. It will serve as his primary workshop, especially in the winter. There is an amazing collection of professional chainsaws that he uses for his work covering one wall. He can tell you which ones to use for every cut on a wood sculpture. He also can demonstrate what each chainsaw can do. Josh is using the shop now, but there are more improvements planned for the future.

Outside his shop, Josh is preparing the ground for an outdoor area to do most of his chainsaw carving when weather permits. There is a lot of sawdust in this type of carving and that works better out of doors. Appropriately, a big oak tree shades and protects the outdoor shop and display area for the bigger, outdoor pieces.

Farther down, there is a log cabin with additions. Josh thinks the original cabin was probably one of the first buildings on the place. This building is also undergoing renovations, which include adding several windows. Light is important for the future show room for his work. He believes, “It’s important for me to display here in a proper setting.” He hopes to have the show room ready by next summer.

 Josh also will display in several shops in the area. Currently, his work is displayed at the Newberry Art Center and in Little Mountain at Who Needs New antique store. Josh’s willingness to sell out of different venues shows the marketing skills he learned when he was helping Jim’s wife. “It’s a business,” he said emphatically.

Josh’s plan also includes the future renovation of another outbuilding that would be where painting classes could be held. Yes, Josh paints, too. This renaissance man envisions art retreats on his family’s farm. Art is a business.

All of this work on the property is still in progress. A dream fulfilled takes a lot of hard work. Josh is not afraid of that. He knows he is in the right place for his dreams to be realized.

 The other part of Josh’s dream is about community. “Here, I want to be more a part of a supportive community. Newberry is doing a lot of that. They want artists to come, and they want to promote them. It excites me to be on the ground floor where art is just starting to grow,” he declared. 

This year at Oktoberfest Josh had a booth. He also had unexpected help. He had met William McKinney, another local wood artist. They had struck up a real friendship. They collected wood walking in the forest together. They walked and talked, sharing their common passion for wood carving. Josh has given William one of his chainsaws to help with his chainsaw carving work, which is newer for William. In return, unasked, William showed up early that morning at Oktoberfest to help Josh and his wife Katrina to set up. 

Josh was so thankful that he asked William if he had any of his carved wood pieces on his truck. William did. They brought some of his pieces back and put them in Josh’s booth. William stayed and helped them with the booth and Josh even sold some of his new friend’s wood carvings. William said of Josh, “He’s funny…He’s creative and resourceful.” What more could you want in a friend? What more could you want in a supportive community?

So Josh and his family are happy on Windmill Farm. Josh will tell you he has Jim to thank. “Jim has led me on this path, not in person, but in spirit,’ he proclaimed. Any time Josh felt doubts or thought maybe this was a mistake, he just felt compelled to keep pushing.

Why? Josh has found his answer in a dream he had one night. In this dream he had a clear vision of going in a barn. He looked around at all of this cool stuff. The front had windows with light streaming in on his friend Jim, who clearly said, “So good to see you. There is something I want to show you.” They went into this other room, where there was even more awesome stuff. Jim said, “No, we are not there yet. Keep going.” At the end of the dream, at the end of the barn, there was light. “Keep coming. There is more…,” said Jim. 

Josh said, “There was more,” speaking about the place, his plans and Jim’s presence in his mind and life. “It was what kept pushing me forward. If it had been anyone but Jim in this dream, it would not have mattered to me.” 

More and more each day Josh is at peace and at home in Silverstreet on Windmill Farm. He knows that Jim would love this place and the dream that he and his family are pursuing. 

We think that Mr. Charlie Senn, who once lived here, would like the hard work and the new dreams that Josh and his family have brought to the Senn family home place. Charlie would want to tell their story.

In our mind’s eye, we see Mr. Charlie and Jim together chatting, looking down, and smiling because... “There is more…”

Photographs by Ted B. Williams.