Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
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CHIPS OF THE OLD BLOCK
ByMolly Hayes
Next time you're strolling along the beach trail, keep an eye out for Bill Le Blanc.
You'll catch him under a bright blue tent off Van Wagners Beach Road, right near Barangas.
As long as the weather's nice, he'll be hunched over a poplar tree stump, earbuds in and sunglasses on as he chisels away at the wood, flicking chips of bark on the grass around him.
"I can't really say I'm an artist, it's just turned into something I like to do," the 58-year-old sculptor says, though there are four carefully crafted stumps along the trail that beg to differ.
There's a beaver in the middle of Confederation Park by the boat launch and a turtle near the former campground.
Just east of Hutch's, there's a foursome of mermaids - sirens of the sea, he calls them - and now, this latest creation, the spirit of the tree, a gargoyle-like creature that, when it's done, will look as if it's pushing itself up out of the stump, dragging the roots behind it.
Full story;
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/3890087-bill-s-chips-off-the-old-blocks/
_____________________________________________
CHIPS OF THE OLD BLOCK
ByMolly Hayes
Next time you're strolling along the beach trail, keep an eye out for Bill Le Blanc.
You'll catch him under a bright blue tent off Van Wagners Beach Road, right near Barangas.
As long as the weather's nice, he'll be hunched over a poplar tree stump, earbuds in and sunglasses on as he chisels away at the wood, flicking chips of bark on the grass around him.
"I can't really say I'm an artist, it's just turned into something I like to do," the 58-year-old sculptor says, though there are four carefully crafted stumps along the trail that beg to differ.
There's a beaver in the middle of Confederation Park by the boat launch and a turtle near the former campground.
Just east of Hutch's, there's a foursome of mermaids - sirens of the sea, he calls them - and now, this latest creation, the spirit of the tree, a gargoyle-like creature that, when it's done, will look as if it's pushing itself up out of the stump, dragging the roots behind it.
Full story;
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/3890087-bill-s-chips-off-the-old-blocks/