CEDAR KEY, Fla. — There’s something inside a piece of wood trying to get out, and Nancy Beckham wants to set it free with her chainsaw.

What You Need To Know

  • Nancy Beckham, a former oysterwoman, left the water for the love of chainsaw art creations

  • Beckham is an eighth generation Cedar Key native and uses fallen trees from Hurricane Helene as some of her pieces

  • Turtle Train Art Gallery in Cedar Key is open Thursdays through Mondays, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

“I’m doing a turtle right now,” she said.

Beckham’s carving outside of her Turtle Train Art Gallery on Cedar Key’s main drag.

“It’s a lot of imagination, and quite a bit of me,” said Beckham. “This is what I do. I put my heart and soul into all our pieces. And sometimes blood.”

Beckham says the wood speaks to her.

"I like to make the wood into what it asks to be," she said. "It asks me, I see it."

The former oysterwoman is an eighth generation Cedar Key native.

Though 2024's Hurricane Helene was the most devastation she’d seen in her lifetime, she understands what it takes to survive here.

For Beckham, every completed piece from a storm-fallen cedar tree is a rebirth on its own.

“Every Arbor Day, they’d give us kids — 10 cedar saplings to plant. So, I planted a lot of the trees that I work on now,” said Beckham.

Her next big project is a result of Helene: a fallen cedar tree will turn into a cypress swamp tableau.