A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022
IN BRIEF
Parking limited for crab festival
The Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival will have park-
and-ride shuttles available to address limited parking at
the event this weekend.
Parking will be extremely limited at the festival site at
the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, and organizers encour-
age using the park-and-ride service.
On Friday and Saturday, routes will include lodg-
ings in Astoria and Warrenton and neighborhood stops.
On Sunday, the Port of Astoria park-and-ride will be the
only stop. There will be a special shuttle route for volun-
teers and vendors.
Not all shuttles on the routes are equipped with lifts,
and disabled parking spaces will be available at the event
for those with handicap placards.
For more information and to view routes, visit www.
astoriacrabfest.com
Seaside police eye suspect
after break-in spree
SEASIDE — Police are investigating thefts and dam-
age to several downtown buildings.
The crimes occurred at The Spay and Neuter Thrift
Shop, Patty’s Wicker Cafe, Coastal Eye Care, Our Sav-
iour’s Lutheran Church, Toyas Chiropractic and the
Nike Factory Store, police said.
The suspect is believed to have left the area.
While impacted businesses are still compiling insur-
ance reports, Detective Sgt. Josh Gregory estimated an
aggregate loss of $9,000, including property damage and
stolen goods.
Brownson holds
‘Meet Your Councilor’ event
Astoria City Councilor Tom Brownson is holding a
“Meet Your Councilor” event from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Saturday at Peter Pan Market & Deli on Niagara Avenue.
Mike Francis will be joining Brownson to talk about
the possibility of creating a South Slope Community
Association.
— The Astorian
Brown signs farmworker
overtime pay bill
Long Beach declines electric scooter off er
LONG BEACH, Wash. — City councilors have
turned down an overture from an electric scooter com-
pany that would have brought the two-wheel vehicles to
the city’s streets.
The issue was in front of the City Council at its April
4 meeting, after the electric scooter company, Bird,
approached the city to see if they could strike an agree-
ment on a one-year trial period to see if their product
was viable.
The deal would have brought a minimum of 50 scoot-
ers into the community, at no cost to the city.
City Administrator David Glasson said he had several
concerns about Bird’s proposal, which included the fact
that the company doesn’t have a physical business loca-
tion in the city.
“They just kind of want to scatter (the scooters) along
the sidewalks and in areas that are near the public,” Glas-
son said.
The Astoria City Council rejected a similar off er from
Bird last year.
— Chinook Observer
ON THE RECORD
Theft
Warrenton.
On
the
Record
• Gabriel
J. Dalpiaz,
Criminal trespass
• Joseph William
Blackler, 40, of Warren-
ton, was arrested on Mon-
day for second-degree
criminal trespass and sec-
ond-degree criminal mis-
chief. He allegedly broke
a window at the west-end
Mini Mart in Astoria with
his fi st.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Seaside Transportation Advisory Committee, 6 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
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‘We Can Do It,’ by Don Frank, shot at the Great Wall Restaurant in Gearhart. The photographer’s show at the Imogen Gallery
in Astoria sums up the past two years in photos. ‘The Lost Winter’ captures the sense of closure — or closings — of buildings,
businesses and schools as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Chainsaw artists revved up
about creating critters
A veteran and
former paraeducator
By PATRICK WEBB
Chinook Observer
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown has signed into law
House Bill 4002, which phases out the state’s agricul-
tural overtime pay exemption.
The new law establishes overtime pay requirements
for agricultural workers in Oregon after 40 hours per
week, with the requirements phased in over fi ve years
starting in 2023.
“I view this bill as an important step in the right direc-
tion, to correct a historic wrong,” the governor wrote in
a letter Friday to legislative leaders. “This policy will
make a signifi cant diff erence in the lives of farmwork-
ers and their families.”
Under the law, farmworkers will be owed time-and-
a-half wages after 55 weekly hours of work next year,
after 48 hours of work in 2025-2026 and after 40 hours
per week beginning in 2027.
— Capital Press
of Powell River in British
Columbia, Canada, was
arrested on Sunday at the
intersection of U.S. High-
way 101 and S.E. Ensign
Lane in Warrenton for
second-degree theft and
unlawful possession of a
fi rearm. The alleged theft
occurred at Walmart in
‘WE CAN DO IT’
Printed on
recycled paper
OCEAN PARK, Wash.
— Michelangelo is believed
to have said, “The sculp-
ture is already complete
within the marble block,
before I start my work. It is
already there, I just have to
chisel away the superfl uous
material.”
Blaine Gunkel would
laugh at being compared
to the 16th-century Italian
genius.
But he does view his
chainsaw art the same way.
For him, a block of cedar
already contains an eagle, a
fi sh, a bear and sometimes,
an ice cream cone.
He just has to free it.
“It’s being able to look
at a log and you remove the
negative and it is in there,”
he said. “I have never been
an artistic person. I couldn’t
even draw you an artistic
stick person, but I can carve
a bear or an octopus or a
fi sh.”
Gunkel and Kim Dill are
partners in life and in Bear
Creek Chainsaw Carving.
She prefers to downplay
her role as his carving assis-
tant, keeping saws fueled at
contests, handling sales at
shows, but it’s evident she is
as enthusiastic as he is.
“We are an excellent
team,” Gunkel said.
The couple moved to the
Long Beach Peninsula about
nine months ago, fulfi lling a
dream of living at the beach,
using their Ocean Park acre-
age as home base for attend-
ing Northwest chainsaw
carving shows.
Inspired by masters
Gunkel,
originally
from Montana, grew up in
Wenatchee, attended Central
Washington University, and
had several careers includ-
ing a stint in the U.S. Army.
Dill is from Texas and works
as a recruiter in the fi nancial
services world.
More recently, Gunkel
embarked on a rewarding
later-life career as a para ed-
ucator in Belfair. “I loved
helping kids,” he said. “I
would see the kids go from
struggling and then hav-
ing them bring their report
cards to you the next year.
I got a small glimpse into
the rewards that teachers
receive.”
When COVID restric-
tions shut that down, the
couple looked for other
options, fi rst close to Ocean
Shores, which hosts annual
carving events, and then
Patrick Webb/Chinook Observer
Chainsaw artist Blaine Gunkel with the tools of his trade.
Ocean Park. Wood creations
had been Gunkel’s hobby
for about fi ve years, inspired
in part by viewing YouTube
tutorials by master carvers
like Steve Backus, of Whid-
bey Island, then later meet-
ing him.
The interest mushroomed
for Gunkel, who now con-
siders himself in the semi-
professional class. He has
been inspired by artists from
Mongolia, Japan, Europe
and around the Northwest.
He and Dill attend multi-
ple shows each year, dis-
playing their work and com-
peting. Some contests off er
cash prizes; competitors are
often asked to participate
in a “quick carve” and pro-
duce a named critter from
a provided block of wood
in just 60 or 90 minutes.
Sometimes it is broad, like
a farm-related item. Rules
specify what tools can be
used.
The rewards go beyond
prizes or sales revenue.
“I love to make people
smile,” Gunkel said. “I love
it when people have that
some kind of wonderment
— ‘ How do they do it?’”
His work has included
fi sh, an octopus, whales, tur-
tles and birds like cardinals,
eagles and herons. Bears are
common. “They are cute
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and people love them,” Dill
said, “and every single one
is diff erent.”
Buyers place them on
their front porches. “Bears
with signs that say ‘Go
away’ sell three times faster
than the ‘Welcome’ bears,”
she laughed.
“Bar control” is a key
learned skill for chainsaw
artists. Many early eff orts,
like one of Dill’s fi sh, end up
much smaller than planned
because chunks are inad-
vertently sawn away. One
way to learn is “cut for
cut,” where teacher and
pupil carve their own sim-
ilar-sized piece of wood
alternately. As her skills
have improved, she has cre-
ated a bear, a mushroom,
a tree and a gnome. Both
donate their items for charity
auctions; one tree wall hang-
ing by Dill sold seven times,
raising $350.
But at public events, she
is happy to stay in the back-
ground, handling sales and
being a supportive assis-
tant. “It’s defi nitely reward-
ing, but I don’t want to keep
bothering him,” she said. “At
shows, I don’t carve because
he is in his ‘zone.’ I love to
fi nish, sand and paint. And I
oil and gas the saws.”
Tempted to keep
At 61, Gunkel enjoys the
physical and mental chal-
lenges his art provides. He
is fastidious about safety,
always wearing gloves, eye
and ear protection, and kev-
lar chaps to protect his legs.
Sturdy scaff olding is pre-
ferred to risky ladders when
creating taller pieces with
unforgiving 20-inch saws.
Like artists in other
media, his inspiration comes
from music. “I want to go
out and carve. It is good
physical exertion,” he said.
“The music, rap, country,
Christian, I listen to … I
don’t know if it’s the energy
in the songs …”
As
a
dehumidifi er
whirred in his packed dis-
play area drying a dozen
smaller wooden creations,
he thumbed through a
2-inch thick photo album. It
showed dragons, snowmen,
items with Seattle Seahawks
logos, customized family
benches with kids’ hand-
prints and apples and pencils
created for teacher appre-
ciation days at his last job.
There was even a hamburger
and french fries.
Dill sometimes laments
their departure. “There’s so
much I want to keep for our
house!” she smiled.
Every photo has a story.
One wooden bench incorpo-
rates a grandfather’s metal
Dodge Ram tailgate. The
most unusual was an urn, cre-
ated for a fellow artist who
wanted her cremains placed
in a carved box shaped like
music icon Prince’s love
symbol. The most diffi cult
was his largest, an 18-foot
tree stump carved in place
with an eagle, a whale and
a turtle, with rocks and star-
fi sh around the base.
And the most poignant
always stirs his respect for
fellow veterans. “The one
that has brought tears to my
eyes is the helmet, rifl e and
boots of a soldier’s cross,”
he said. “People come to
shows to watch you carve,
and you can see who has
been in the military. They
have these memories … it
warms my heart.”
Gunkel’s L-shaped yard
on his Ocean Park acreage
is stocked with three waist-
high 6 -foot logs that he has
cleared from neighbors’
properties. Cedar’s usually
fragrant smell and insect-re-
sistant quality make it his
preferred wood, although he
sometimes uses driftwood.
He scooped up a handful of
sawdust to inhale its scent,
labeling it “man glitter.” It
adorns his black sweatshirt.
Recent popular items
have been bird houses with
“spirit faces.” He uses the
fi re from a weed burner to
darken the completed box,
then brushes it vigorously
to create color which high-
lights its texture. A similar
technique produced smooth-
backed turtles which had
been burned but appeared as
if stained.
He sees no limit. “I like
to carve something I have
never carved before,” he
said.
Inevitably, he is his worst
critic.
“I see the fault in all of
them.”