By Barry Ellsworth of The Intelligencer (March 2009)
When it came to the ice carving part of the celebrations, Paul Shier took a natural gift for marble and soapstone sculpting and put it into
play as he worked on a frozen block and turned it into a dragon in about three-and-a-half hours.
A production manager for D and K Heating who lives north of Tweed, Shier is an accomplished sculptor.
In 2005, he did the famous tribute to firefighters of 9/11, a sculpture of firefighters' boots, helmet and pocket watch that was presented in honour of the firefighters who died at the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Word Trade Center in New York.
The work was placed at nearby Bellevue hospital, where victims of the attack were taken.
It took him four years to complete and he has also done a five-foot marble sculpture of a wolf to honour the Canadian soldiers who have served and died in Afghanistan.
He said he chose a wolf because the animals "work good together" and are "strong" like soldiers. The wolf is depicted baying, to honour the soldiers who died.
"To me, it's like a mournful howl," Shier said.
It is on display in Tweed, and also honours the Tweed Legion.
For him, ice is a medium that lends itself to sculpture because unlike marble, wood and soapstone, you can see through it to make the chain saw cuts.
"It's just so easy," Shier said.
By EARL MCRAE, OTTAWA SUN
TWEED --
Entering this small town on my way back to Ottawa from Toronto, I unexpectedly saw it -- white and sparkling in the hot sun at the edge of the park, so special because it's the only one of its kind in all of Canada -- and I pulled over, parked, and got out.
I'd been listening on my car radio to the Senators/Sabres game and now, as I stood before The Guardian, I thought of one whose mother and father were here last week to pay tribute, Pte. Blake Williamson of Ottawa, and I thought of how he'd have been cheering on his Ottawa Senators, he who will never cheer again, he whose cheering came to an end, with his life, on the 14th day of October 2006.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I said to a couple behind me, staring in respectful silence at The Guardian, the monument to our soldiers who've been killed in Afghanistan. Al and Monica Dade, heading to Toronto where he's a martial arts instructor, saw it as well from the road, their curiosity kindled.
"Yes it is," said Monica Dade. "My best friend's nephew is a soldier in Afghanistan." Her eyes turned back to the monument. "She worries every day that he might be killed. He's just a kid."
The traffic roared by on Hwy. 37. "Garret," I heard a woman's voice call, "you see that? Korea. Your grandfather served there." She pointed to the engraved Korean War 1950-1953. Her name is Georgina Goulah. She is 72 and from Tweed. Vincent Goulah was her husband. A private with the Royal Canadian Mechanical Enginesubers.
Garret Goulah is 11 years old. It wasn't The Guardian he and his grandmother were standing before, but another monument near it: The cenotaph for the boys from town who fell in World War I, World War II, and Korea. During World War II, Tweed was a village of only a few hundred people. Of the 18 soldiers' names on the Tweed cenotaph who were killed in that war, three of them are Rashottes, three of them Thompsons, two of them Cassibos.
"Have there been any soldiers from Tweed killed in Afghanistan?" I asked Evan Morton.
His office is in a house not far from the park. He is the curator of the Tweed And Area Heritage Centre. "No," he said softly.
But for Paul Shier, that didn't matter. Paul Shier is a renowned sculptor who lives in town. One of his works, Thundering Silence, is displayed at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. It pays homage to the many firefighters who died in the line of duty.
Shier wanted to honour another group of heroes, and the result is The Guardian, the six-foot-high marble sculpture of a baying wolf with the engraved words below it Lest We Forget and on a bronze plaque: This memorial is erected to honour Canada's soldiers who gave their lives in the service of peace in Afghanistan.
Shier donated his monument -- the only one in Canada for our dead in Afghanistan -- at no cost to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 428 of Tweed.
At its unveiling in the park, 500 children from town and area schools gathered along with dozens of local, provincial, and federal dignitaries and eight Silver Cross mothers and wives from across the nation. Scores of uniformed soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa marched proudly down the main street of town and the bands played and the townsfolk applauded.
The Guardian is the only such monument in Canada to our Afghanistan dead, right here in Tweed, and the tranquil little town has never known such honour and pride since a man named Elvis moved here in exile.
CHEERING VICTORY
"Elvis?" said Evan Morton, smiling. "Oh sure. He's still here. He's living in my basement."
As I drove into Ottawa, the Sabres-Sens war had ended. I heard the car horns honking, the cheering from balconies. I knew in Afghanistan before TV sets, young men and women would also be cheering the victory. The brave and the alive. In the war that matters.
On Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5, ice scuplting demonstrations were happening at Tweed Memorial Park as part of the Tweed Winter Carnival festivities. Paul Shier is seen putting finishing touches to his ice polar bear. The Tweed Lions Club purchased the 300 pound block of ice for the demonstration. They were having a difficult time on Saturday sculpting with the ice melting fast.
Local artist Paul E. Shier was commissioned by the Bancroft Chamber of Commerce to sculpt a crystal out of what he thought was a 4,000 pound piece of white marble. Much to his surprise, the marble was actually Quartz Crystal which came from a quarry near Potash lake.
He began the sculpture on Wednesday July 27, 2005 at the Bancroft Rockhound Gemboree and completed it on Sunday, July 31, 2005. It will be on display in Bancroft.
Paul Shier of Tweed demonstrates his wood carving technique at the Tweed Heritage Day held August 13, 2005. This large eagle is being carved from basswood.
