Editor’s note: This story appeared in the April edition of the South Cowichan Connector, a publication for and about the South Cowichan Valley. Look for our May edition starting May 2.
Many people look at a tree stump or a washed up piece of driftwood and see just that. Cowichan Bay carver Justin Spalek uses his imagination to see so much more, and a chainsaw to bring it to life.
“I don’t do conventional carvings like most people do,” said Spalek. “I look at something, and I see something in it and I start to carve it.”
Born and raised in Rock Creek, B.C., Spalek comes from a family of farmers who had three concrete outfits as well as a horse logging outfit. This gave him the opportunity to tinker with tools at a young age. He built his first Detroit Diesel engine at the age of eight, and has been wielding a power saw since age 11 — he is now a millwright by trade.
Spalek has always loved the ocean and realized he couldn’t live without it, and says it was the beloved show The Beachcombers that inspired him to move close to it. In fact later in life he met Pat John who played Jesse on The Beachcombers and even attended his funeral.
Spalek says he fondly remembers his first time going out on the water with Eagle Eye Marine Services of Salt Spring Island and spent a lot of time lassoing stranded boats and dragged them in. He’s lived on sailboats or tug boats in the surrounding areas for the past 18 years including Salt Spring Island where her met his wife of six years. They moved to Cowichan Valley this past June. He says the couple originally left Salt Spring Island to embark on life’s adventures and had bought an 87 foot ferry, which is now sitting at the bottom of the ocean on Arbutus Point due to a severe storm nearly five years ago.
Three years ago while working on an Oyster Farm up in Sechelt Inlet, Spalek says it was boredom that inspired him to fire up his chainsaw and begin carving creatively. He notes he has always enjoyed doing artsy things such as painting bikes and hot rods, and while he has also used knives and chisel to carve out his art, the chainsaw is his weapon of choice.
“I did a wood spirit with the chainsaw that is still sitting at that oyster farm,” said Spalek. “There’s carvings at every oyster farm I’ve worked at — Reed Island, Sechelt Inlet, Salt Spring Island, and also on the outside passages, pretty much everywhere I’ve been.”
Spalek, who suffered a stroke two years ago, says that the experience of carving is very calming and zen for him. Spalek started with a face, and a few other pieces that quickly sold.
“The first year I got into this I needed money for Christmas, so I did a dozen carvings. I had some poles and I put them in the back of the truck and parked in the grocery store in Sechelt and sold them that way,” said Spalek. “I don’t really know what to charge, I just love to do it, and to see people smile. I probably don’t charge enough, but I don’t care, I just go with the flow and it feels good when I carve.”
Since carving out this creative path for himself just three years ago Spalek primarily works with red cedar and driftwood. Once he finishes the piece he is working on, he will burn and sand it and says through this process, anywhere he has sanded will turn a silvery colour, while the blacker areas stay shadowy. After burning each piece he uses a mixture of beach sand, shells, and rock to get the charcoal off. He has created more than 300 pieces to date and each one brought him happiness, but he hasn’t loved all of them. In fact any piece he isn’t thrilled with he tosses into the ocean to let people find. He says in his first year he probably threw more than 100 pieces into the Sechelt Inlet.
“As you are driving into Sechelt on the right hand side you will see carving in people’s yards and some of those were ones I had thrown in the ocean,” said Spalek. “I like finding my logs in the water, beach washed, smashed-up and worn down by nature. Some of the art I’ve done up the inlet, I wasn’t happy with it so I’d kick it off into the inlet and it would come back a few weeks, or a month later so I’d keep carving on it. I had one that was a wood spirit come back three or four times and then I had to move and never saw it again. I had also thrown a totem I didn’t like into the water and about a year later I was sitting at the dock in Sechelt and I had seen his elderly lady dragging it up the beach to bring it home to her garden. When she found out I was the one who carved it she gave me $20 for coffee.”
He also has his favourites. He was commissioned to do a carving for Cowichan Bay’s Snap it Up Jewelry owner Julie Wilson this past summer. Upon seeing the stump coming out of the ground in her yard he immediately envisioned a humpback, and she was pleased by his idea. The humpback whale he created for her stands 18 feet tall, and took four days to carve. Little did he know at the time that the inside of her home was actually filled with whale knick-knacks and figurines.
“When Justin arrived to look at the stump he walked around and around it with his arms in the air, I was watching him, then he dropped his arms and said this tree wants to be a humpback,” said Wilson. “I took him inside the house to show him the other art I had of humpbacks. Instantly knew he was the ‘right’ carver for this project. Our family loves the whale, and not just our family and friends but also people who drive by and stop, and others have come through the gates to take a picture. It’s unique and beautiful, and the connection we now have with Justin and his wife confirms that all things happen for a reason. Justin created a one of a kind piece of art in my yard, and through meeting this amazing guy has also brought so many people to stop here and enjoy his art.”
“I think the whale at Julie’s is my favourite so far, I really like that one,” said Spalek. “It looks like it is coming up out of the lawn and is going to breach on land. Julie is going to plant blue flowers all around so it looks like it is coming out of the water, so this year it should look really good.”
“There is also another carving of mine next door to Julie’s place,” said Spalek. “It is of a wood spirit that’s holding an orca in his hands, and he has an owl sprouting out of his hair and he is going to fly down and plant the orca seed. It was a story of creation told to me by a good friend of mine in Sechelt. One night he told me this old Indigenous story of creation, and when I saw that log in their yard that’s what I thought of when I carved it. It’s all one big piece, it was a big tree that split into two, so the whale is on one side with the hand wrapped around it, and then the owl and the wings are all one piece with the log, and I drilled holes and peeled back the brown layers of the bark used for making twine for the hair.”
Spalek finds most of what he works with from the beaches. He has carved masks that can be seen around Crofton, and some are on display at Third Wave Coffee Company. He also makes dream catchers out of raw twigs, and has been using a roll of net twine that he salvaged from a boat for its intricate design. Currently he is carving an eagle out of red cedar that he has already put more than 10 hours into. Once he gets involved in something he doesn’t like to stop.
“I’m going to have a lot of work into it on the time it’s done, it’s going to be a very unique piece,” said Spalek.
He was forced to take a short break on the eagle due to the rainy season but since starting employment with Maple Bay’s Valet Shipping Yard a few months ago he has been able to use space in one of their sheds to dry out and continue his work. Spalek says it will all be one fluid piece — a salmon will be clutched inside the eagle’s claws, while its tail wraps around. The eagle will be on a steel rod that will go into a blue stone giving the impression that the eagle is grabbing the fish out of the water. The blue stone is set to cost $400, and once complete, it will sell in the ballpark of $1,000.
“I see things coming out of twisted wood, I don’t like symmetrical,” said Spalek. “I don’t like things to look perfect and I don’t like shiny. I use the saw to go with the bend of the wood. You will see with my eagle that the wings and the head and the tail all bend with the wood. Where I’m about to start carving the salmon is wrapped around the bottom. I don’t like gluing things on, I do it as all one piece. I feel like if you carve something out of one piece that it has a spirit, and if you start gluing other things on it just doesn’t seem right. It’s my method of carving, it’s not for everybody.”
Spalek already has his sights set on his next project after he completes his eagle. He will be carving the Greek God of Wealth for his employer in Maple Bay, and is currently on the hunt for that perfect four foot thick log to create it from.
Spalek is not online, and prefers not to have a phone but can be contacted through his wife’s phone number at 250-537-9636 for those who are interested in buying Spalek’s art. He says he keeps a lot of his pieces in the back of his truck and often sells them in the parking lots of businesses. He says to keep an eye out for the black truck full of his work that he will often sell in the Walmart parking lot while his wife is shopping.
“I hope people appreciate the uniqueness of my work,” said Spalek. “I don’t do two of anything. Julie’s whale is hers, no one else is getting that humpback whale because everything I do is to the curve and twist of the wood. Every piece is different and that is why I like to do driftwood. I like my work to look like it was carved 100 years ago.”