{"id":36515,"date":"2025-07-03T13:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36515"},"modified":"2025-07-03T13:23:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:23:17","slug":"pole-carvings-at-john-abel-park-showcase-local-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/pole-carvings-at-john-abel-park-showcase-local-wildlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Pole carvings at John Abel Park showcase local wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Abel Park, one of Aurora\u2019s newest greenspaces, is now an artistic destination following the installation of a series of wooden pole carvings immortalizing local wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The carvings, which were formally installed last week, are the works of noted Ontario chainsaw artist Bobbi Switzer, a resident of the Bruce Peninsula, and reflect not only the artistic passion of late deputy mayor John Abel, who died in 2018, but the park\u2019s position as a gateway to the David Tomlinson Nature Preserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese carvings add a unique artistic touch to John Abel Park, blending seamlessly with the natural surroundings, said Mayor Tom Mrakas in a statement. \u201cThey\u2019re a fantastic addition to one of our most beloved green spaces, sparking curiosity, encouraging outdoor exploration, and celebrating the diverse species that call our region home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Announcing the new installation just off Hartwell Way, the Town saluted Switzer as \u201cone of Canada\u2019s pioneering professional female chainsaw artists\u201d who has been working in the medium for nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much beauty in nature and that\u2019s my inspiration,\u201d Switzer tells The Auroran. \u201cI myself live in the bush and am inspired daily by my surroundings, which is an all-natural setting, and I just kind of carve what I see in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before becoming a chainsaw artist, Switzer says she was a children\u2019s book illustrator and fine arts painter, but shifted to a very different medium as a way to realize her vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI stumbled upon chainsaw carving and loved it because now I can create something three-dimensional in my mind and bring it to reality,\u201d she says. \u201cAs it\u2019s three dimensional, you can walk around it, you can touch it, and everything that came from your mind\u2026you can touch and people can experience. I love painting, don\u2019t get me wrong, but you just look at it, where other ones you can touch it, walk around, see it behind and you can experience it fully, that idea that was in the artist\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was commissioned by the Town to create the sculptures, the task was simple enough: capturing the wildlife that was native to the area, including the trumpeter swan, which has made a comeback in Ontario thanks to the efforts of late Aurora resident Harry Lumsden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey basically said, whatever you want to do, as long as we can keep the native wildlife, [so] I was able to do not just animals, but also incorporate some of the plant life, like the trillium, some cattails and whatnot, and I guess it just really suited everything they wanted to portray in the carvings,\u201d says Switzer, noting that initially the plan included making the carvings out of poles that had been donated to the Town, but they ultimately opted for Ontario white cedar for durability, its resistance to bugs, and the artistic grain within the wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am very happy and pleased with how this all turned out,\u201d she continues. \u201cI\u2019ve got to be honest \u2013 when I had it here at my studio, I fell in love with the pieces and didn\u2019t want to let them go, even though it was already commissioned as [Aurora\u2019s] pieces. This is the problem with being a chainsaw carver \u2013 you love the work and you love the pieces, and for the short time they\u2019re here you really get to enjoy them and it\u2019s hard not to get attached to them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s because the wood was once alive that when I carve a character inside the wood, it kind of brings a second life to that wood. It\u2019s not just like a concrete statue where you just look at it \u2013 it stirs up joy in your heart when you look at these. A lot of my clients are repeat clients and they\u2019re continuously coming back for pieces because they said these pieces give them so much joy and I love hearing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on Bobbi Switzer\u2019s work, follow her on Instagram @bobbichainsawcarving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Abel Park, one of Aurora\u2019s newest greenspaces, is now an artistic destination following the installation of a series of wooden pole carvings immortalizing local wildlife. The carvings, which were formally installed last week, are the works of noted Ontario chainsaw artist Bobbi Switzer, a resident of the Bruce Peninsula, and reflect not only the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-03-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9uX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 08:43:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36517,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36515\/revisions\/36517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}