Rocking Back, and Forth
Nothing begins without looking back, so, to get 2019 started, I’m taking stock of 2018’s doings.
When it was too frosty for sensible outdoor construction I compiled words and images into a little book that we self-published. The Solitary Stoneworker, is now available as a print-on-demand softcover book, and as an Ebook. The Solitary Stoneworker joins my other books, In the Company of Stone and Listening to Stone, available through online and local booksellers.
When spring came, it was time to install the Slate Bauble, a sculpture that grew, with the help of glue, in the studio over the winter. The meter-diameter sculpture was mounted on a plinth of slate scree at a residence just across the river valley.
The public came out for a slide talk at Springfield Town library, a reading at Barre’s library, and to watch Camilla Rockwell’s Stone Rising at City Hall in Burlington.
The other venue that got me out and about was The Stone Trust, where I taught dry stone workshops in May, August and September. And in the gaps between projects and studio work, I had the pleasure of working with Jared Flynn and Chuck Eblacker on a couple of their walling projects.
I was a finalist in a competition for sculpture at the new Agriculture and Environmental Lab being built in Randolph, VT. It was one of a number of proposal packages that we put together that ultimately didn’t fly. The good part of the disappointments is that I got to spend enjoyable time making clay models in the studio.
Two fire-inspired constructions came together in the summer. Starfire was sawn out of a single slab of natural schist for a backyard cookout scene. And Fire Foramen went down to bedrock for the hearth of a sunken bonfire enclosure.
A request for a cemetery headstone got me thinking about how to portray the memory of loved ones. The carved bowls in the top surface of a boulder, one for each family member memorialized, reflect the day and season by pooling rain and snow.
Out of my comfort zone of stone, I took on an unusual project; creating a stumpery. A woodland, moss and fern garden took shape on a New Hampshire property. The main features of the garden are twenty, upturned tree stumps that were fire sculpted to accentuate their natural forms.
That’s it for 2018, all wrapped up on one page. Thanks for following along. Now, let’s get this new year rockin!