Dene artist Chris Turo has carved out a niche of creating various “takes” on the salmon. He sits in his usual place on the raised entryway of a rather upscale office building in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. The sleekly dressed IT specialists come and go, picking up their coffees from a café down the street, stepping past Chris, everyone exchanging a nod and smile. Tourists and locals stop to chat, to see how the carving is going, to ask questions. Chris carefully keeps his backpack, tools, display stand, and all those chips of wood flying from his knives out of the pathway and always leaves his home base spotless at the end of a carving day. This particular salmon carving is one of the largest he has done. It is of white pine and is very light. The unpainted areas simply leap out at the viewer, in contrast to the red and black that helps the viewer distinguish the shapes within shapes of the piece. In this piece, the overall framework is the salmon. Its eyes are highlighted with an abalone disk (purchased at a local craft and sewing supply store nearby. The hooked mouth of the salmon, probably a spawning sockeye is clear. At midpoint of the carving, along it is lower edge, is an eagle profile. Finally, in the tail area there are the claw marks of the grizzly bear. All of these creatures are interdependent – and Chris Turo portrays that. Length 28”, width 6”, by ½” thick. 262 grams.