Ft. Ancient

Tom Mitts invited us up to his house in Newport to celebrate our birthdays, which are 1 day apart. As a day time activity, we decided to visit Ft. Ancient, which is a complex indian earthworks located a few miles north east of Cincinnati. (most photos on this posting by Meg White).

Upon arrival, everyone's attention was caught by feathered shafts sticking up out of a trash can out in front of the museum.

Instantly, I realized that they were atl-atls. There was a stream of visitors who were giving it a try - once it was explained how it worked.

Meg (in her White stripes T shirt) knew how to handle an atl-atl. We have a friend, George Nall, who makes them and had brought some out to our studio for us to try. (photo Tom Mitts)

It was all new to my friend Tom. "Like this?"

"No...like this."

There was a sign next to the museum that said "Stone Circle trail". That appealed to my celtic nature, so we set off to see the stone circles. We had trouble finding them. The sign to the right of the picture said that there were 3 stone circles a few feet to the south east. We're not looking for the stone circles in the tree tops. We're trying to figure out from the sun which way was south east.

"This...is a stone circle?" I was expecting...I dunno...maybe a circle...of stones. Not a thin rock pile almost completely obscured by forest debris.

Equally underwhelming, was my visit inside the Ft. Ancient Museum. As weird as this sounds, there were no Ft. Ancient culture artifacts in the Ft. Ancient museum (none that I saw, anyway). I would have guessed that they would have found all sorts of cool stuff at Ft. Ancient over the years, but if they did, it wasn't very well represented in the museum. I thought that I might see 'museum-quality' artifacts inside the museum (silly me). What I saw was mostly empty walls. There was a lot of signage and 'interpretive' displays (all very general in a vague way). There was a smattering of low-end (common) artifacts with major condition problems (and poorly labeled). Anything that was cool was a replica, but that doesn't bother me, as you can get a lot of information looking at a good casting.

Besides a lack of Ft. Ancient Culture items, there were no Glacial Kame items, no mention of Flint Ridge, no cones, discoidals, Birdstones etc etc. I would have expected to see representations of all the major point types and slate artifact forms that are found in Ohio. Ohio has a richness in prehistoric heritage that goes beyond science - there is an incredible variety of ancient art pieces in pottery, flint and stone. The museum was curated in such a way as if to say ..."isn't archaeology boring - we never find anything of signifigance. So, just leave it to the professionals. Move along, move along."

On the way back to Tom's place, he pointed out that they are putting the finishing touches on what will be the tallest building in Cincinnati.

Tom is an incredible cook. He had the best tomatillo-based salsa that I've ever tasted in my life. Steaks, ribs, Cornish game hens, etc. etc. The idea was to have too much good food.

Mission Accomplished! Happy birthday to me.

Felicity

I've been working on a granite bench called "Felicity", which means 'fruitful happiness'.

The first step involved transferring the design onto the preform.

After that, I cleaned up the inside radius.

I used a carbide tipped drill to help remove stone from hard to reach areas.

Even though I was a long way from finished with the first side, I stood the piece up so that I could work on the other side.

This was the progress on the back side at the end of this week.

Carving granite is very different from carving limestone. One of the best techniques involves using this big carbide-tipped chisel to decisively drive off pieces of stone. The air hammer is almost ineffective - the chisels just bounce off. Silicon carbide sandpaper is worthless. You have to use diamond for shaping and finishing - although you can get a lot of stone moved with carbide, such as drilling or pitching off corners.

These are the diamond blades that I've already gone through on this project so far - and I'm a long way from finished!

...and speaking of 'fruitful happiness'...Happiness Is...but a morsel away. (photo Meg White)

successful 2010 sculpture show @ yew dell

The opening for the 3rd annual Yew Dell Outdoor Sculpture Show was this last Friday from 5-8 p.m. Meg will do a detailed posting of the pieces that have already sold in a day or 2 on her blog. I'll show 4 images from the opening, but first....

This week, with the new compressor up and running, I was able to finish "Promise".

This is an alternate view, as you move around the piece.

This is the back side. As I get better images, I'll post them on the 'Stone Sculptures For Sale' blog.

For me, the real showstopper at the Yew Dell show this year was this glass ladder by Casey Hyland.

I had a chance to congratulate Amanda Matthews, who had recently won a public art competition at Georgetown College. The other finalists in the open competition were myself, Craig Kaviar and Matt weir.

We saw so many friends and colleagues - it was a bit overwhelming. This is David Schwartz, who we've known for years and years.

Meg sold "Demeter" at the opening. More about the Yew Dell show to come in future posts.

Yew Dell Revisited

I didn't post last week, because I spent a lot of time installing a new compressor and finishing out the electric on the new stone studio. ( ...And all of that kind of stuff falls under the catagory of "Who Cares".)

Wednesday, we rented a box truck with a liftgate from Penske. We wanted to make sure that Meg's bronze 'Ely' was moved safely to Yew Dell Gardens for this year's Outdoor Sculpture Show.

A long day just got longer.

The next stop was at Judy Lanham's, to pick up some of her husband's sculptures.

6 of Don Lanham's stone sculptures were sited in the small stone courtyard at Yew Dell. I was very happy when they decided to feature Don's work in this year's show.

This is my favorite of the group.

Meg snapped this shot of a Luna Moth - I've always thought they were too cool!

Yew Dell Load In

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by, and it's time to install our sculptures at Yew Dell Gardens for their 3rd Annual Outdoor Sculpture Show.

Thursday, we loaded our large stone sculptures for the trip to Crestwood.

We had quite a load for the rented flat-bed from Penske, but it was a lot less than the semi loads of the previous two years.

We had Derrick meet us up at the Gardens with the 23 ton crane from JBB inc.

Meg's sculpture of Demeter was the first to be unloaded.

Karla Drover of Yew Dell Gardens discovers the hidden message in the bottom of the stone trough that I made for them. I've started leaving messages between and under stones for people to find. This one says "It is impossible to achieve the aim without suffering". Curious? Google it.

"Ripples" moving through the air.

Nexus was next. Then, we installed "River Font" whose hidden message was "Don't push the river, it flows by itself".

Oberon headed out - after hanging around since last year's show.

We made ready for the return voyage to the studio.

(splinter or beam?). We unloaded Oberon at the studio.

As mentioned in last week's post, I wanted to move the 6,000 lb. cubic meter of Spanish Marble while I had the crane at the studio.

...and this is something unlike anything that I've ever tried before...It's called "Sunblok", and its hidden message is "Be like the Sun at midday".

100th blog post!

This is the 100th time that I've uploaded content onto this blog. That's saying something...(not sure what...).

I got distracted from working on "Promise", and began another project "Sun Block" (because of an unforeseen opportunity with a tight deadline). This piece of stone was split from an earlier project called "Strength". You can see a picture of "Strength" by scrolling down to the Roanoke installation posting below.

I drilled holes to remove the excess piece on the end - I want a cube shape. I've put in 'feathers and wedges'.

The extra piece will become a head study soon. That head study was split from the Sun Block base, which was split from the Roanoke bench "Strength", which was split from the arm for the 40 foot Schaumburg Muse. (which was split from the ground in Bloomington, Indiana - go figure).

...the first rays...(..of Don)

All 4 sides of the base have the sun design carved into them, now.

The base with the sun motifs will hold up this polished cubic meter (39.37 inches cubed, 6,000 lbs.) of Spanish Marble.

This is a close-up of the marble to show how wildly beautiful it is. It's got occasional crystal pockets and it is covered with dendrites (moss-like vein patterns). I'll assemble this piece while the crane is here later this week. I'll post finished images of this sculpture on next week's post.

They Came From The Stars! (photo Meg White)

...I hear...I obey... (photo Meg White)