Hopefully a More Popular Wall

I got a commission for a piece of public art of the stone variety from the Sisters of St. Joseph. I began work on it last Fall, delivering stone to the site, but bad weather halted the project at that point and I resumed in the Spring.

 I had a substantial amount of money available and in the end there was at least 60 tons of stone involved. The original plan was altered several times for a variety of reasons and this is what I ended up with.

 Two walls running parallel to a walkway that splits the property. The first three pictures show the smaller wall which undulates from the corner of the lot, around a tree and then connects to a big pier of masonry that was on the property

 The second wall is about the same length but much thicker and higher. It goes around a stand of birches and the western part is pretty much at the same level and serves as a bench that faces a concrete pad that will serve as an area where performances can occur. The eastern part is twice the height and is thicker and curls off at the north entrance to the lot.

 It was a lot of fun and I had some help from some soccer players on a couple of days, but mostly it was a solo job requiring some sweat and smashed fingers. I liked working with this type of stone, Laurel Mountain blend it was called. In each palette there was quite a bit of junk stone, but I was able to incorporate it without too much trouble.

 The neighborhood people who passed and took the time to talk a bit were all very positive and a couple of them stopped by on more than one occasion so it was clear that people appreciated what the sisters were doing.

One more load to deliver and then some tidying up and that will be that. It is on 19th Street, behind the Erie Cemetery, just over from Chestnut.

Still Here

Another big piece I worked on in the Spring. Exhibited at Brown's Farm at a show with a nature theme. It is a tree on the edge of the bluff  just above the way down to the beach. Along the bottom are some assorted bones I've found on the beach with some interesting forms. I'm going to submit it to the Biennial in October along with the previous piece. Lots of stuff going on right now, but I will catch up at some point.

A Moment

It has been a while, but I haven't been able to come up for air often. I'll try to get a few posts in the next week to catch up. The summer has just been a fecking free for all, out of control, downhill sprint. Here's how bad it is. I'm down to 160 pounds...I think I weighed that much in ninth grade...I can't drink enough beer to keep the weight on.

Here is a big piece from June. A reworking of the Roman architecture piece from a while back. In the same vein as the painting posted a while back of Ghent and the one from Lhasa. I like the feel of these works.

Another Year in the Mines

Been a busy year so far, so just a quick art update. Here is the piece from January. Inspired by architectural elements in Ghent, Belgium. Took a couple of trips there in the last couple of years and finally got around to doing a little architectural piece. Turned out OK.

I have been cutting apart some old paintings and putting them back together and mounting them on pine board. They are roughly 7" by 11" and here I have photographed nine of them in random order. I think I will have about 15 by the time I am done.

So now that initial post is out of the way, I'll try to be more diligent in recording things.

PS from Sisyphus

The lake has been pretty calm for the last couple of weeks and there is no ice as of yet. That means the beach is still vulnerable to a big storm. Just to illustrate what a mild storm can do I have a before and after picture from the last little blow. In the first picture you can see a wall of about four feet in height and 35 feet in length running along the base of the bluff parallel to the waterline approximately 15 feet from the surf line.

 In this picture you can see what a moderately powerful storm did to the wall. Some stone is lying in the foreground, but the bulk of the stone from the wall was washed down the beach about fifty yards. I rebuilt it over the next three weekends only to have it washed out a second time. I have managed to put a smaller version in place in the hopes that it will provide a little protection to the bluff in the case of a small storm, but hopefully nothing big will come along before we get some ice dune protection.

Recollections

Been pretty busy the last couple of months getting a show together for Glassgrowers. It ended up being a dozen pieces and for the most part I was pretty pleased with the result. Several of the pieces were the result of the summer trip to Nepal and Tibet. Lots of wonders on that trip including the clarity of the light and the astounding colors. Every temple or monastery that you walked into was a riot of color. For a western trained artist it bordered on anarchy. It was shockingly lovely and a little disturbing.

The painting below is a kaleidoscopic view of Potala palace in Lhasa. This was the newest of the experiments after Strasbourg and Rome. 

 This was my first attempt at understanding the anarchy of color that every temple houses. Textiles, paintings and sculptures are all just celebrations for the eyes. It will take some effort to understand it.

 A little study of light on yak craniums. As subject matter I couldn't resist. I have done a couple of traditional landscapes as well to explore atmosphere.

 Also drawn to water patterns on a koi pond near Potala. There will be more work to do, but I feel I learned some things with this set of paintings.

Beachworks Revisited

So, part of the summer was spent on the beach restoring the ruins of the previous Beachwork which was obliterated by some amazing spring storms. These storms also washed away a good 10-15 feet of the base of the bluff. You can see the erosion in the top photo. That ledge of exposed earth is about 6 feet off the beach in height and probably 15 feet back from where it used to be. Priority one was to run a wall along the new base to keep the lake from eating any more of it. In particular saving that oak right in front. Happy to report that the oak has survived the summer storms and has now made it mid way through October. I am cautiously optimistic.

 The other part of the project was to reconfigure the wall that runs back up the bluff. In this photo you can see where it stands. I will just keep running the sloping wall up and back until the stone runs out. We'll see how it goes.

 In a totally unrelated subject. Great mushroom from the side yard of the school. Pretty impressive.