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North edition rtnnewspaper.com Calpe and Javea pay respects to terror attack victims
Members of the community in both Calpe and Javea held a minute of silence on Monday for the victims of the London Bridge terror attack p4
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Issue920
9th-15th June
A work of art Javea sculptor gives life to the scorched tree trunks of the Granadella. by Tahnee Wright
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Miguel Angel Miguel Garcia
A talented sculptor from Javea has taken to the scorched tree trunks of the Granadella, creating life where there was nothing but ashes after the forest fires of last September devastated some 812 hectares. Miguel Angel Miguel Garcia - a gardener and tree-trimmer by trade - has been hard at work in the park of Pinosol, where many chalets were burnt in the blaze. Equipped with just his chain saw and an artistic eye, he has carved beautiful sculptures out of the perished pines – starting with a woodpecker before moving on to create a pelican and a giraffe. Miguel Garcia spoke with the municipal authorities first: ‘I told them about my idea of creating sculptures and they thought it was good. I began to mark the trees that I wanted to sculpt’ and had to remove many of the scorched leaves from the area before he could begin. His talents have, unsurprisingly, caught the attention of passers-by, many posting photos and videos to social media, applauding him and his work – members of local Facebook group ‘Javea Connect’ said: ‘What a brilliant idea’; ‘So talented’; ‘They look fantastic, thank you whoever you are’; ‘A great outcome from something so devastating’. Miguel Garcia is self-taught - as a child, he enjoyed arts but it was never something he pursued or studied. Some four years ago, he happened upon a programme on the Discovery Channel about sculpting trees - carving them with chain saws - and he immediately took to the task. Miguel Garcia said his ideas come to him when he looks at the tree, he ‘imagines what can emerge’ and, as passers-by have witnessed, executes his ideas with great speed. And there’s no stopping Miguel Garcia now he’s started – ‘Yes, we are going to create animals and some totem. We may also make some moai like those on Easter Island’ he said.