Väinö Oja worked as a gravedigger for several years before he found work as an operator of heavy earth moving equipment. Now in retirement he lives in a small log cabin in the middle of a forest surrounded by his sculptures, representing female figures as well as animals and birds.
Oja started to make wood sculptures in 1998, cutting his first work, a bear, from a spruce trunk. With his chainsaw he cuts a rough shape, which he then refines using an axe and a hand-held chisel, before smoothing the surface with sandpaper.
