Toltec Mounds Archaeological State Park

On the way down to Austin, Texas to set my art bench at the Leander Public Library, I noticed signs for 3 different archaeological parks in Arkansas.  I picked Toltec Mounds as my side trip adventure for this voyage.  It's located a short distance east of Little Rock - signs from 440 take you right there.

 The first thing that I encountered was the interpretive center / museum, which is a beautiful piece of architecture.  I ended up in a lengthy conversation with the Park Superintendent, Stewart Carlton.  The highlight of that conversation was learning about an experimental type of deep scan that had been done on the mounds.  I'm a big fan of  Geophysical surveys as it can give "the big picture" of an archaeological site.  Scans can show features that even an experienced eye could miss in a dig (and you don't have to tear up the whole place while doing it!).  Stewart Carlton set up my own 1-man private viewing of their presentation video in the museum and then I got to wander through the museum and the grounds at my own speed.  How cool is that?!

 An enormous amount of awesome artifacts have been found at the complex over the last 150 years.  My eye was caught by these delicate Novaculite arrow points.

 There were raw pieces of Novaculite in the outside landscaping.  This stone is a fine-grain Quartzite that's a nightmare to work until it's been heat-treated.

 … and how about these pretty points made from clear crystal.  Of course, Arkansas has some of the biggest and best Quartz crystals to be found on this planet.  My rock collection has many examples from the Mt. Ida area.

 This map shows the 1.6 mile trail through the mound complex. This was my 4th day bouncing down the highways in the big truck; I needed the break to stretch my legs.  It was pleasant to hear bird song instead of the roar of the diesel engine.

 The whole site had been ringed with a moat and embankment.  However, decades of farming had knocked the high places down and filled in the low places.  I'm happy that the State of Arkansas has the vision to preserve important sites like this from further deterioration.

 That red box and a ring of flags shows where Mound H used to be located. From the top of the largest Mound A, the sun appeared to rise over this mound on the Equinoxes.  But... it gets weirder than that... it was backwards when it came time for the sun to set. You would stand on Mound H and watch it set over Mound A. From Mound E, the celestial north (Polaris) always appears above Mound A.

 This is mound B where the Summer Solstice sun appears to rise as seen from Mound A.  The Summer Solstice sun appears to set over this mound as seen from Mound H.  So, these 3 mounds in particular had a very complex relationship

 The bigger mounds A and B are adjacent to an oxbow lake. This walkway takes you out to the water's edge.

 This is the waterfront side of Mound A which is the major focal point for the whole complex. It's hard to get a sense of scale, but the mound is almost as high as a 5 story building.   It would be nice if they could install a set of steps (like at Cahokia) and maybe a platform on the top (since they don't want people actually on the mound itself) so that visitors could get a sense of things.  From that height, the whole complex would be much more impressive.  I think it would be nice if we could see what the original builders meant to be seen.

All along the waterfront are large Cypress with these sculptural "knees".

I found my trip to Toltec Mounds enjoyable and thought-provoking.  I'm saving the best for last: they found that the arrangement and sizes of the mounds and plazas were laid out with a system of measurement equivalent to 155.8 feet (47.5 meters).  I'd never heard of a system of measurement in ancient Native American sites.  Is this singular to this place or can that be found elsewhere such as Cahokia or some of the mound complexes in Ohio?  There's plenty of mysteries left to be solved about the people who lived in the U.S. long before we came on the scene.... and the truth would probably blow our minds!

Magic Carpet Bench installed at Leander, Texas Public Library

On August 15, I found out that I was one of 6 semi-finalists for an opportunity for placing an art bench at the Leander Public Library.  Leander is a satellite city of Austin, Texas.  On September 12, I was informed that I was 1 of 3 winners.  Here's a link to their local paper that goes into more depth:

http://hillcountrynews.com/stories/grab-a-seat-read-a-while-leander-public-library-gets-three-new-art-benches,81045

 On Saturday, October 19, Dereck Sheroan from JBB, Inc. brought their 23 ton crane out to load me up.

 I had much more truck than I needed, but I was lucky to find this in my region.  Flat bed trucks are hard to rent.  This one had cruise control and a USB for my MP3 player, so I was fine with it.

 On Tuesday afternoon October 22, I arrived at the site and took a look at where the piece was to be placed.

 This art bench by Elizabeth Akamatsu was already installed in the library courtyard.

 So was this stainless steel bench by Rollin Karg.

 Here's a close-up of the large glass element in the top of the functional sculpture.

 My eye always goes to stone, and I was fascinated by this large piece of petrified wood.  The picture doesn't do it justice as there are polished areas that really show off a pretty blue color in the stone.

 The courtyard also had this metal sculpture....

 ... this bronze of a dog...

 ... and this whimsical bronze with a frog on mushrooms.

 Early the next morning, I arrived at the site to find the crane already set up.  I had time to visit with the crane operator while we waited for other people to show up.  His name is Irving Carrillo and he does acrylic paintings of landscapes and portraits and this is his facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/irvingcarrilloart.carrillo?__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARCjWsUpltLkz9q4HXpJGlXxc62aurhdzPQK8jw-FGedipvzzJQyuGbjUAnvGKmzqhBgKbwJjBrAg7Z6&hc_ref=ARS-1ITx5AhnsBQmBe-bPsxg2xhJXtBA8-BfGMJL_Wma17ax5t_fa9RMTHWbaDJG_dM&fref=nf
Irving has only been doing paintings for 3 years - that's a strong start!  Stay with it, Irving!

 I had lots of help from the Parks Department folks during the installation.  Everything is so much smoother and safer when you've got competent people helping to make it happen.

The person to my right is Tyler Bybee who was my contact person for the project. So... here's my functional sculpture safely set in its new Texas home.  Nothing left but to make the 1,000 mile trip home....

What's in a Load of Stone?

In February 2017, I made a trip to Victor Quarry (now owned by IN Limestone Co.) to buy a stone for a commission that I had for Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, KY.

 Brent Blackwell, who is in charge of block sales there, had this 32,000 lb. block scoped out for me to fit the dimensions that I'd e-mailed to him before the trip.

 That left about 10,000 lbs. to make a full load, so we found the block that is on the bottom here.  I remember that it was starting to snow about this time and the wind chill was getting close to zero, so I snapped this picture and got back into the warm truck without a whole lot of fussing about.

 There was a serious variegation on one side of the Buffalo block. Brent was nice enough to have that cut off before it left the quarry.  So, that made the original Buffalo block 22,000 lbs. when Padgett Crane unloaded it at the studio.

 That stone became this 9,000 lb. Buffalo a few months later.

 Most of the scrap was small pieces that went over a bank to make more flat land or into pot holes in my 1/2 mile driveway.  There were at least 4 large corners that are becoming a fountain series based on the 4 elements of Fire, Water, Earth and Air.  Here are 2 of them - which is what I've been working on lately.

 The 10,000 lb. piece that came off the side of the buffalo had been laid aside...

 ... but, after delivering the finished commission, I split that piece in two and made "Hope" from one of the 5,000 lb. pieces.

 The other 5,000 lb. piece got cut in two...

 ... to make "Fruition"...

 ... and "Lemon Slice Sunrise".

 Remember that extra 10,000 lb. piece that I bought to fill out the load?  It was stood up on the rail cart...

... to become "River Music Bench"...

 ... and "Enthusiasm".

 The bottom right corner of that 10,000 lb. extra stone was split off to become this small sculpture "A little bit of Soul"...

 ... and "Flutter".

The bottom left corner became "Fireball sprout".  There were, of course, other small corners and pieces of scrap in that load that either became more small sculptures or are sitting out in the weeds waiting their turn - but, that accounts for most of that load.  It's easy to see that I try to make the most of stone when I have my hard earned money invested in the stuff.

So… I'm getting ready to go get another load.  What's it going to become?  I don't even know... and that's the exciting part.

"Fruition" functional stone sculpture

I finally finished "Fruition", which has been over a year in-the-making...

 It started last summer during the "dog days" when I stayed in the A.C.-cooled clay studio to beat the heat.  I made clay scale models to fit various stones that I had - including a 5,000 lb. scrap from the Buffalo for Buffalo Trace Distillery.  The concept behind the piece is that "you reap what you sow", in other words, hard work produces its own reward.

 I took side views and added a scale grid to help transfer the design onto the stone.

 I did the same thing for the other side.

 It's hard to see... but the grid is in red china marker.  The main design is in thick black timber crayon.

 I actually started some of the carving before cutting out the main piece of scrap with the hydraulic chainsaw.

 The piece of scrap (from a piece of scrap) became Lemon Slice Sunrise as seen in the post below.

 This February when we had the crane out for various lifts, I moved the preform onto a concrete slab on the west side of the studio.

 I worked mornings on this functional sculpture for weeks.  By 1 p.m., the sun hits the piece and I would go find other work to do inside the studio (with a fan on me...)

 Here's the finished piece waiting for better photographs before I post it on my website.  It measures 50" high x 66" wide x 18" deep and weighs (I'm guessing) about 3,000 lbs.  It will sell for $8,000.00.

… and ending with the usual wildlife picture.... This 4th of July, we had a tiny visitor... This 3 or 4 day old fawn (legs still wobbly) came bleating across the lawn all upset.  Here's Meg's video of some of that:
https://youtu.be/cEBsYs9zGG4
We thought it was abandoned to be wandering around by itself bleating so loudly.  So, we tried it on warmed goat milk (a close approximation to actual deer milk, we've been told... not that I've tried either...).
It wouldn't take any, so we knew to leave it alone under the crane truck where it'd settled down.  That evening, I saw a doe leading it down the gravel road.  I'm happy that we resisted the urge to take it to the local wildlife rehabilitator.