Hanging Gourd

My son plans to turn this into a musical instrument.

Aboriginal heritage on the rocks - Guardian Weekly

Aboriginal heritage on the rocks - Guardian Weekly

It has been almost a year since I added to this blog chiefly because carving rock proved a bit hard on my arm. Still relevant articles on outdoor sculpture, rock works and gardening might occasionally crop up here.

John Magin's Glass sculpture

We recently were the lucky recipients of this fine glass sculpture. Somehow it is cast in sand. I think this one may have been cast in Cape Cod. The pictures do not do it justice. When the light shines through it really is pretty magical.

Primal Yawn

The Shrinking Brakeman

The Shrinking Brakeman was a character who hung out in Barnesville, Ohio, for many years, and was maybe so named by my cousin's husband, DR, who pointed him out to me once, in a diner, some twenty years ago. The image I have carved looks nothing like him and is more an idea. That he looks vaguely like Obama is purely coincidental. If you must know I am for Obama. There, I've said it. Inspired by William Edmonson (see bio in previous blog entry), I used a rail spike to carve it.

William Edmondson

William Edmondson (1874-1951), the son of freed slaves, was born in rural Davidson County and moved to Nashville by 1890. Working first at the railroad and then as a janitor at the Nashville Woman's Hospital, he lived at 1434 Fourteenth Avenue South surrounded by family and a vibrant community. At the age of 57, Edmondson began working with limestone using a hammer and a railroad spike. "I was out in the driveway with some old pieces of stone when I heard a voice telling me to pick up my tools and start to work on a tombstone. I looked up in the sky and right there in the noon day light He hung a tombstone out for me to make," he explained.

Edmondson carved for 17 years. He said, "I am just doing the Lord's work. I ain't got much style; God don't want much style, but He gives wisdom and sends you along." Truly Edmondson drew his subjects from his world, both real and imagined. Critters like rabbits and bears, from folktales, Adam and Eve from the Bible, and nurses from the Woman's Hospital joined neighbors on porch swings and preachers with Bibles in a cast of characters that inhabited his yard. Crafted by a skilled hand, Edmondson's sculptures are a testament to one man's ability to transform observation and imagination into objects that continue to inspire us today.

William Edmondson stands among the most important self-taught artists of the past century. As the first African-American artist to receive a solo exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (1937), Edmondson claims a national place in the history of American Art.
This bio (with thanks) from Nashville's Cheekwood Gardens website: http://www.cheekwood.org where a show of William Edmonson's work is currently showing.
Image (with thanks) from: www.antiquesandthearts.com.

Don't Step Here Because It's a Bird's Death

My daughter's response to the death of her pet blue and white budgie (parakeet), Mudge, who dropped dead all of a sudden one day.