July 2016
Parkallen
News In this issue… • Safe Cats. Safe Birds. • What was that thump? • Our Neighbours the Coyotes • AGM & Executive Update • Meet the Executive • Meet the Principal • EFCL Update
Close-up of Ryan Wispinski’s owl carving.
Alley Cat A local resident carves out a name for himself in a back lane near you By Kim Green Photos by Bo-Kim Louie “ ‘Lignum bonum est.’ My dad used to say that all the time,” says 43-year-old woodcarver Ryan Wispinski. “It’s Latin for ‘wood is good.’ To this day I tip my hat to my dad who got me started.”
totemic creation in the making - a nine-foot tall, five feet in circumference woodcarving of three owls wrapped around a tree trunk.
wants it to live on his deck,” says Ryan. And although he usually likes to carve for himself - “I like to work on my own time with my own vision” - should more commissions come around he’s ready. “I do enjoy the view of the old Ryan has saved enough hardThose lucky enough to have found Greek myth where owls were wood, salvaged from cabinetthemselves wandering down the viewed as a symbol of wisdom.” making shop discards and picked alley south of 72nd and west of 111, Ryan writes on his blog. “I find will have witnessed the evidence owls to be mesmerizing, magical.” up in other alleyways, to keep on carving for decades to come. “If I of where that start has taken That magic also worked its charm carved every piece of wood I now Ryan. There, under a tarpaulin to on someone else. “The carving is have,” he says, “I’d need to live for protect it from the elements, has a commission for a client who’s a very, very long time.” stood for the last six months, his built a cabin outside of town and