First Friday Gallery Hop

I made a little progress on my life-size limestone figure this week. You can see the design drawn onto the stone preform.

There's been a lot of rain, and this is all that I was able to get done this week.

When it was raining, I worked inside on this stylized marble swan which is for a show of monument sculptures that will be at Kaviar's gallery on Frankfort Ave. in Louisville.

The art galleries in Louisville have concurrent openings on the first Friday of every month. We've been to several, but this was the coolest one that we've seen. We started our gallery hop at the newly opened space in the downtown Bristol. Chris Mozier had a one-man show of his paintings, and this was my favorite.

The installation of interactive sound sculptures at Zephyr Gallery was a real crowd pleaser.

Hidden down this narrow path off Market Street, and up these stairs, is the Tim Faulkner Gallery. Here, you will find the strongest concentration per square foot of local talent in the entire city.

95% of the artwork is 2D, but I wanted to show this plaster by Wyatt Gragg that I really liked. I think that he's on the right path.

Our last stop on the gallery hop was Flame Run glass studio and gallery, where I met fellow Centre College graduate Brook Forrest White Jr. He took the time to show us his plywood mock-up for a monumental glass installation that he will be doing at the Falls Interpretive Center later this summer.

Roanoke benches and Centre Reunion

Starting with business first...

Work continued all week on the first of 2 benches for Highland Park in Roanoke, Virginia. I further refined the intertwining forms by applying a spiraling chisel texture, using an Italian made carbide chisel.

The sculpture was then stood upright, so that I could shape the curved inner form.

This is how it looked at the end of the week.

...and this is the view from the other side. I've been pleasantly surprised with the rate of progress, which is great, because I will have to switch gears for the next 2 weeks to install the Home of the Innocents monuments. The preview dedication is October 26th (coming up too fast!).

...and now for something completely different...There was a gathering of my fraternity brothers and other Centre friends at Dan French's house this Saturday.

Here's a picture of most of the attending alumni. Starting from left to right: (please forgive, and help correct, any misspellings or errors) Me, and Dan French's oldest son (break dancing?), Mark Kowalk (with bottle), Dan French (on knees), Richard Rolfes, Miles Barkley, Robert Groves, Suzanne Humphreys, Larry Pritchett (in back, check out larrypritchett.com), Dean Langdon ( with cellphone cam), Ray Edwards, Phil Recob, Kent and Brent Ballow, Reid Geiler, Cindy Pierce-Perkins, Kevin Perkins, and David Thomas. Later, we were joined by Ellen Bush, Mike McGurn, Tom Thurman, Latelle Lafollette, and David Ely. An awesome grouping of people!

Everyone was checking out this cool banner drawn by Ray Edwards. How do you catch up 25 years with a group like this, in a short few hours? You can't...just hang out and sing along with Larry and Richard while they play guitar, and enjoy the moment.

1984 Centre College

I just got these images from Tom Mitts. These were taken over 25 years ago. Most were taken at his senior art exhibit, the rest were taken at the apartment on 2nd street that we used to share. He scanned them from old 35mm negatives. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I have.

From left to right: Kris Scheeler, Tom's uncle Dick Usleaman, Tom Pisano, Angela Reynolds and Topie (Utopia)Conger.

Robin and me.

Sarah Appel.

J.P. (John Pierce) and his wife, Shannon.

Cait McClannahan (she is on crutches because of a sprained ankle during an episode of the "ass biting" game that was in vogue. Rough housing always leads to tears).

Bush Beans, Paul Breslin and Tom Mitts.

"Say Cheese!" Hell Fire (Tom's dog) and Steve Kottkamp.

Tom and Topie.

...and I included this one for the title that Tom gave it: "Little Tommy before it went all so wrong". Check out Tom's artwork at http://www.fineartoilpainting.com