A new mural, in theme with the upcoming 2023 Chainsaw Carving, has been freshly painted at Hope’s WildRose Campground and RV Park.
The WildRose’s playground area recently received a fresh new look after getting a mural, on July 21, featuring a Sasquatch using a chainsaw to carve “Wildrose” into a log. Painted by Chilliwack artist Jack Hendsbee, the beautiful work was commissioned by the Gore brothers, who own the campground.
“We really love Hope and we really respect Hope. And we’re really happy to be part of the businesses and community here,” said Tony Gore. “And so, when we saw that they’re having the Chainsaw Carving Competition, We thought, well, hey, we should like jump in and be part of it a little bit. So we thought, hey, we’ll get a mural painted on one of our walls. And we hired Jack Hendsbee for it.”
Tony is one of three brothers — Mark, Lee, and Tony — who bought WildRose five years ago. Together they make up Gore Brothers Home, a home renovation and refurbishing company, located in Chilliwack, who’ve led a number of notable renovation projects throughout the province. This includes helping to renovate parts of the former military base at Garrison Crossing, and renovating a home containing one of North America’s worst hoarding houses (that was featured on Hoarding: Buried Alive).
According to Tony, the project really came to life after hearing numerous stories from WildRose campers about Sasquatch sightings, mostly of an adult and child. This, coupled with the 2023 Chainsaw Carving Competition happening on Aug. 17 to Aug. 20, prompted the brothers to come up with the Sasquatch and chainsaw design — with plenty of input from Tony’s and Mark’s children (Naomi Gore, Jack Gore, and Wyatt Gore) who helped to design the mural.
Hendsbee, who’s known the Gore family since middle school, said he was asked by the brothers to create the stunning art piece. In particular, Tony asked for a theme revolving around the Sasquatch, a figure whose presence is well known among the WildRose campers.
“There’s been stories of people seeing Sasquatch there (at the campsite) and apparently the majority of the sightings in that area has been of an adult Sasquatch, and then a child Sasquatch. So, he (Tony) wanted me to incorporate that into the design,” Hendsbee said. “It was awesome, working on this project. It was a challenge to do with spray paints, for sure. But I’m super happy with how it all kind of looks mixed up.
“And then in terms of like, how fun it was, everyone at the campsite was awesome. And the atmosphere there was just awesome for painting.”
The project, Hendsbee said, took him five days to do with one day dedicated to sketching and the other four to painting. This is also the first time he’s used spray paints.
As he is still making a name for himself, Hendsbee said that he’s quite grateful to the Gore brothers who have continued to set him up with big projects like this. He’s also grateful that this project allowed him to work in Hope, whose natural scenery gave him a lot of inspiration to work on the mural.
A recent participant of the art world, Hensbee said he made the jump to professional artist around six years ago, when he was 18-years-old. Since then, the young artist has created a number of projects over the years — plein-air paintings, portraits, landscapes, and, of course, a number of murals throughout Chilliwack. In fact, Hensbee’s first mural was done in 2018 for Mt. Waddington’s Outdoors.
Now that the WildRose mural is finished, Hendsbee is returning his attention to the two murals he is currently doing for the Project Climbing Centre in Chilliwack. He may also be working on a future project for Downtown Chilliwack. In the meantime, readers curious about Hendsbee’s work can check out his Instagram, @jackhendsbee — which has been receiving high praise from Tony who said he’s very pleased with the work.
“He blows me away,” Tony said. “I don’t know how he can do it. On the first day that he was done, I was like, ‘holy cow, I can’t believe it.’ Like, that’s talent, right? That’s just amazing.”
READ MORE: Coast Salish carver George Price wants to open a school to pass on his woodcarving teachings
@KemoneMoodley
kemone.moodley@hopestandard.com
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