Tennessee Commission and Indiana Sales

2020 has not been a good year for most people - but it's been particularly hard on anyone involved in the Arts.  All of the regular venues have been shut down and my extensive marketing has completely failed.  Yet, (from unforeseen directions) I've been lucky with sales and the occasional commission.  

( I don't get what I want - but I get what I need...) 

I had been approached by a private individual from Johnson City, Tennessee to create a fountain sculpture from the last piece of Tennessee Marble that I had from Friendsville, TN.  This is a 350 lb. piece of scrap from a mermaid commission of Paul Fields - back in 1989 when I was his apprentice.

Here are 6 views of the finished piece that measures 26"H x 13"W x 10"D and weighs a little over 100 lbs.

Below are pictures of 4 pieces that I sold to a couple in Bloomington, IN.  The stone was just making a round trip, returning close to where it was quarried.

This is "Jack's Bean Stalk" in its new home.

Another view.

This is "Moon Garden" which is based on "The Little Prince".

Another view.

... and this is "Claw Flower" bird bath with a top carved from Alabama Marble.

Another view.  

They also bought this small indoor sculpture called "Spark Sprout".

another view.

... ending the post with some nature pictures...  how about this strange cloud?

... and here are 2 trees that we saw in the woods.... not sure what's going on here...
 

Lexington Sculpture Installations

Back on March 13, I received a call from Nathan Zamarron of LexArts.  He wanted to lease my "River of Music" bench for an 18 month temporary outdoor sculpture show in Lexington.  2 days later the state of Kentucky was shut down and that was put on hold.  Things got back on track and he contacted me last week to resume the lease (with option to buy) AND the City of Lexington made a direct purchase of another functional sculpture, "Battery Bench".  Well worth the wait...

On Thursday, September 17, Dereck Sheroan of JBB, Inc. brought the 23 ton crane truck to help me deliver and install the 2 functional sculptures.  We started with the 5,600 lb. River of Music Bench.

While we got set up, Meg took lots of pictures of dew-covered flowers.  All of the pictures on this post are by Meg White.

We loaded the large piece first...

... and then the smaller piece.  The dew-covered spider web in the foreground looks awesome.

We met Nathan in Lexington at the site and discussed how to proceed.

A drone is above the crane truck taking video and there is another person with a high-quality video camera on a tripod documenting the whole event.

Dereck got the truck into position and set up the crane.

I rigged the piece up...

... and set it on the provided concrete pad.

Next, we installed the purchased bench in a temporary site.  I'm looking up to watch clearance of an overhead power line - we stay away from those as far as possible.

Always glad to have extra help when setting pieces.

 This is the Battery Bench which now is part of the collection of the City of Lexington.  The only thing left for us to do was make the 3 hour trip home.  It was a very long and stressful day - but everything worked out just fine.

Eagle Commission

Recently, I was offered a commission to create a life-sized Eagle.  This is for a private individual in Tallahassee, Florida.

I looked at all the stones around the studio.  This piece, that was partially hidden by tall Johnson grass, looked like an Eagle with its wings over its head.

I created this line drawing to fit what I could see in the stone.

Meg used her crane truck to move the stone into the studio.  It was bigger and heavier than it looked in the stone yard - they always do...

I cut the bottom flat and stood it up.

I used Photoshop to overlay the design and transfer a crude outline onto the stone.  I had to tweek the drawing by angling it back - to properly fit.

In front of the fan are 2 large pieces of scrap that I cut from the block.  They will become sculptures themselves one day.  

(That will be two 100 lb. blocks for future sculptures

- that came off a 1,200 lb. block for a Eagle sculpture

- that came off a 9,000 lb. block for a bench sculpture that went down to Houston, Texas

- that came off a 24,000 lb block for the arm of the 40' Awaking Muse of Meg's that went down to Orlando, Florida

- that was split from the ground in a quarry near Bloomington, Indiana...)

I created a 1/4 scale plasticine clay model (without any fussy detail) to fit into ...

...the preformed stone block.

This is the front view of the clay model.  I deliberately made the wings together to give each other strength.  

This front view of the stone shows that I could spread the wings out.  It's tempting... but, I know from experience that the thin wings would be easily broken when moving the piece.  

This is the current state of this project.  I've got time to get feedback before proceeding...

(that will give the fledging wrens that are fluttering around the studio time to develop and go forth into the world...)
 

A New Load of Stone

Thursday, July 2, I received my 45,000 lbs. of Indiana Limestone.

 Dereck Sheroan from JBB, Inc. of Hardinsburg, showed up early with the crane.  While we waited for the semi to get there, we took the top piece from my sculpture, Circle Seed, and laid it onto its side so that I could fix the bottom, drill and pin it to its base.

 Stonebelt Trucking brought the load from Bloomington.  Jordan, the driver, was 'spot on' - especially when it came time to turn his rig around.

 Rock #1 (at 11,200 lbs.) is unloaded...

 ... then rock #2 (at 6,000 lbs.)...

 ... and rock #3 (10,000 lbs.).

 Then 3 out of 4 slabs come off the truck...

 ... and, last but not least, a 16" thick slab gets a lift.  Now, it's time to get to work.

Ending the post with a wildlife shot: a fence lizard watches the whole thing from his personal piece of stone.
(All photos Meg White)

Indiana Limestone Quarry Run

On June 15th (my 59th birthday), I had scheduled a trip to the Victor Quarry that is owned by Indiana Limestone Co. / Polycor.  

Meg drove and treated a birthday meal of my choice.  A HUGE shout-out for Smokin' Jim's BBQ in Bedford, IN.  Their beef brisket, mashed potatoes, gravy and buttered  Texas toast is a FEAST!

 After lunch, we met Brent Blackwell who is in charge of block sales at the old Victor Oolitic location.  I had previously ordered 18,000 lbs. of slabs for a commission and wanted to find some carving blocks to make a full semi load.  The first choice was the smaller one with 11.2 circled (that's the weight in thousands of lbs.).

 The next pick was this 10,000 lb piece that is standing on its side.

 Brent Blackwell found this 6,000 lb. piece to fill out the 45,000 lb. load.

 I asked if we could take some pictures, so he offered to show us where they were quarrying.  They are slicing the quarry floor like a loaf of bread.  The slices are 4' apart and 10' deep and about 100' long.  After they take out these slices ( a half million lb. each), they plan to quarry underground back into the hill.

 They left this solid stone dike to hold the water back from where they plan to go underground.

 Brent then took us over to another location where they are taking out big blocks.  It's hard to capture this in a picture because the scale is so massive!  Way over there are huge pieces of equipment taking out a layer of usable stone.  Underneath red clay and a thick layer of St. Louis limestone (which is only good for gravel) they find the 40' to 60' thick layer of good Indiana Limestone that is called the Salem  Shelf.

 Blocks and more blocks!  I'm looking at enough for many lifetimes of full-time sculpting... it's overwhelming.

 Brent showed us where the swimming scenes were filmed for Breaking Away in 1978-79.  Meg and I had just been talking about that movie on the way up the road....

 Check out this huge all-stone corner post at a small cemetery.  Right in front of Brent is a high cliff that overlooks...

... the "Empire Hole" - where the stone for the Empire State Building was extracted.  I always like to have an adventure on my birthday - I LOVE to go exploring and find cool places.  But, it was unexpected that Brent would take the time to show us these awesome sights that are located on Indiana Limestone Co. property.  Thank you Brent for making this a VERY memorable birthday!