Arnold Schwarzenegger has been honored with several statues throughout his long and successful career, but few as impressive as the one recently carved by wood sculptor James O’Neal out of a single black oak trunk.
Standing at 1.88 meters, the statue took O’Neal six months to complete, and bears an uncanny resemblance to the “Austrian Oak” in his prime years, when he won back to back Mr Olympia titles.
From his signature vacuum pose, to his 70’s hairdo and even the veins on his arms, the sculpture captures the look of Arnold Schwarzenegger almost to perfection.
“This piece of black oak has the craziest grain of anything I’ve ever carved,” O’Neal wrote. “Burls, knots, bark, bug tunnels, and grain that changes direction every few inches.
Arnold fans will probably feel it interferes with the statue, but this piece is why I carve trees. So much character, and after all, Arnold is the Austrian Oak.”
However, I think it’s fair to say that this life-size sculpture of Arnold is his greatest work yet.
