It’s not often you come across an over 700 pound sculpture of a gryphon made from an old tree stump. But an Ariss man is the proud owner of this unique piece of art.
“It looks great,” said Rod Merrill, a professor in the department of molecular and cellular biology at the University of Guelph and the owner of “Gryphy” the statue.
The statue was designed by Paul and Jacob Frenette, father and son wood carvers who create sculptures with chainsaws, and are two hosts featured on the HGTV series, Carver Kings.
The Frenette's have a shop in Wallenstein that operates under the name Carver Kings.
“I messaged them from their website and asked, 'Hey are you still doing carvings?'” said Merrill about how he got in touch with the Frenette's.
“I sent them the pictures and they said, ‘Wow that’s really large!’”
It took almost a year for the carvers to bring the design to life, which is a gryphon hugging a stack of books while sitting on top of a larger book. The gryphon, which is a hybrid of a lion and an eagle, is known in myths to guard treasures or prized possessions.
In this case, the gryphon represents the protector of knowledge, said Merrill.
“I was duly impressed,” he said about the end result, “He turned out better than I expected.”
Merrill explains Gryphy started out as an estimated 1,500 pound sugar maple tree stump. In June 2020, Merrill spotted the stump while driving along Shantz Station Road going toward Breslau.
The ‘free’ sign on the stump caught his attention, he recalls.
“I came back in the afternoon for it,” said Merrill, who learned that the stump came from a man named Rob McKinley, who cut it from an old tree on his property in 2019.
Originally, Merrill thought about turning the stump into a couple of coffee tables, but decided against it upon looking at the way the stump was cut.
“It wasn't just one, big round stump... but it had two or three other big branches coming out from the base,” said Merrill about its shape.
However, Merrill then began to think about a gryphon statue at U of G. Having worked at the university for 31 years, Merrill decided a statue of the gryphon would make a good retirement present for himself, as he will retire from teaching this fall.
“I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to make a wooden carving of the gryphon?'" said Merrill, "I always thought it was the coolest mascot for any university."
“There's some intrigue, it's a mythical creature ... I thought it would be cool to have it on my driveway."
After reaching out to the Frenette's about the project, they began working on the statue in the fall. The plan was to have the statue sit outside, but Merrill became concerned about the weather impacting the wood, and after speaking with his wife Barbara, it was decided that it would sit inside the home.
“The sun alone will wreck everything no matter what you do to coat it with UV protection,” he said, “Over a period of five years, it would start to deteriorate."
By May, Merrill was able to pick up the statue, but then had to figure out a way to get it through the front door. While Merrill figured out a plan, the statue sat on a platform on the front porch for a few days.
“On Saturday morning, with a team of strong guys and me, we actually just slid the gryphon statue from the table platform on the porch over onto a cart ... and so we moved it over onto the cart ... we removed the front door, and then two on the inside and two on the outside ... we pulled a cart through the door and it didn't fit,” he said about the day they moved Gryphy inside.
“It was two inches too wide, and it turns out, that my front door was only 34 inches."
In order to make it fit, Merrill said he cut off two inches of one of the statue's toes to get it inside. He carefully glued it back on afterwards.
“You really can’t tell, there's a very fine line,” he said about the cut.
Despite the wait, Merrill and his family are pleased to now have Gryphy sitting in their living room by the fireplace.
"My wife and I both have a vested interest in the statue," said Merrill, who mentions his wife also works at the university and one of his daughters is a U of G alumni.
Down the road, Merrill sees the statue going back to the university or staying within the family as an heirloom, but Merrill isn't planning to put it in the will just yet.
“That’s further down the road, we barely got it into the house and already the kids are fighting over it.”
