Vandalia "Chiseled" Stone Symposium

Monday, Meg and I visited the Vandalia "Chiseled" stone symposium in Vandalia, Ohio, which is just a few miles north of Dayton (where I was born 49 years ago). We had a friend, Matt Weir, who was participating.

This was Matt's 9th day in a row for working on his large scale stone sculpture. He was holding up well - in fact, he was almost finished! The front side of his piece had a pixelated brain, which made a statement about crossroads and evolution.

He showed us the design for the back of the sculpture, which was a theater stage - as a metaphor for Life.

Moving 'stage right' (or upwind - however you want to look at it) was John Leon of Cincinnati, Ohio. John has an impressive list of accomplishments over his 30 year career. He is giving a video interview as part of the documentation process. The people who set up this symposium did a fantastic job - everything was 1st class!

I particularly enjoyed meeting Todd Frahm of Solsberry, Indiana. He is currently teaching stone sculpture at Indiana University in Bloomington.

He is carving a tree frog on a light bulb. I'm sure that we'll be seeing great things from Todd in the future.

This is Lasha Khidasheli who currently lives and works in Charlotte, N.C. He is originally from Georgia - not our Georgia, but the 'Old World' Georgia.

His sculpture, entitled "Sunset", uses negative space to let light through. I liked this photo because it included the sweeping architecture of the Recreational Center, in the background.

This is Patrick Sullivan of Squamish, B.C. Canada.

The staff of the symposium had provided smaller blocks of stone for kids to carve. There were hundreds of school children who had the opportunity of seeing the symposium first hand, and had a chance to see the process and talk to the sculptors. I hope that it 'lights a fire' in some of them, and produces a new generation of stone sculptors.

The Don and Tom Show - it was a 5 hour drive, each way, so we split it up with an overnight visit with my old college roommate (and fellow artist), Tom Mitts. (all photos Meg White).

St. Mary's Cathedral

June 16th was Tom Mitt's birthday ( a day after mine). His choice for a daytime activity was a trip to St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky.

The exterior of the building was based on the cathedral at Notre Dame.

The entire stone exterior is a masterful example of stone work. The numerous gargoyles and embellishments represent thousands of skilled man-hours of intense labor. I would love to have the chance of examining these pieces close up.

The interior is gothic, modeled after the Abbey Church of St. Denis. There's a mix of domestic materials, such as the Tennessee marble floors, and materials brought over from 'the old world' (Italian marble and German wood, etc.)

Wood carving was my first love, before stone. There is a profusion of fantastic wood work - all in excellent condition.

Around the walls are 14 mosaics in porcelain and mother-of-pearl with imported marble frames. Pictures cannot capture the subtlety and masterful rendering in these mosaics. It's about this time that I'm going into sensory overload. It can't all be grasped in one short visit.

Looking up, there are hundreds of square feet of intense stained glass works. The whole experience is overwhelming! Good call, Tom - much better than my choice for Ft. Ancient the day before.

As a way of clearing our 'mental palate', Tom took us down to the waterfront. He pointed out that they are installing a Christo wrapping of an old Cincinnati bridge (just kidding).

We were mobbed by the resident flock of Canadian Geese and Mallard Ducks, who relieved us of our extra pringles. That reminded us that it was time for our first snack of the day (it being 2 p.m.). Our 'breakfast of champions' was 3 pounds of hickory smoked beef brisket and a bunch of sides. You can do that kind of thing at least once a year. Happy Birthday, Tom. (all photos by Meg White)

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.

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