Artist Carves Incredible Life-Size Sculpture Of Arnold Schwarzenegger Out Of Tree Trunk

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.

The entire process of shaping the black oak trunk into an ultra-realistic sculpture of the bodybuilding legend was documented on James O’Neal’s Instagram.

“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.”

This isn’t the sculptor’s first experience trying to capture the look of an accomplished artist, as his portfolio includes wood sculptures of boxers Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather, as well as UFC superstar Connor McGreggor.

However, I think it’s fair to say that this life-size sculpture of Arnold is his greatest work yet.

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The Austrian Oak is complete after 6 months work. It will be heading to GrandRapids, Michigan next month for the Artprize contest. Next March it will be on display in booth #1551 at the @arnoldsports festival in Columbus, Ohio where Arnold himself will see it in person. #arnoldschwarzenegger #austrianoak #schwarzenegger #arnold #mrolympia #ifbbpro #bodybuilder #woodcarving #tbe #woodworking #sculpted #shredded #wip

A post shared by James O'Neal (@jim104gmc) on Aug 29, 2018 at 6:21pm PDT