TO DIG OR NOT TO DIG

The Hole Project

 Dearest Readers,

My proposal to dig a deep hole, line it with marble and make a ladder emerging from it out of boughs and leafy branches was accepted for SculpFest 2012 at the Carving Studio in West Rutland Vermont. Nine other artists with outdoor site-specific pieces were also accepted. The only problem is timing.  Can I accomplish this feat of struggle, endurance, deep digging and hand-made ladder building by September 8^th, the date of the opening reception? I seriously doubt it. I’m still waiting for confirmation of where my site will be on their grounds.

Hmmm. My inclination is to “Go for it” at my own pace without fear, and wherever I am at the final date I stop. My core body strength these days is limited. This hole has been in my mind for over a year. It is meant to be a personal test...a struggle and a “hero’s journey” as Joseph Campbell, the scholar of myth called the path of the seeker for spiritual understanding. The digging is about going down inside under the surface of things. The ladder of course, is the resurrection and the hoped for transformation.

The Carving Studio, a marble sculpture school, is housed on a former location of the Vermont Marble Company. There are four abandoned quarries on site, marble slabs strewn throughout the forested grounds, several abandoned marble warehouses, gorgeous rusted mechanical hoists and “maypole” contraptions originally used to carve and extract marble out of the hills. Twenty-five years ago some artists organized the Carving Studio on this land, donated by the Gawett Marble family. Here are a number of shots of the school and the grounds. I should know by next Sunday’s blog what my decision will be...To dig or not to dig...that is the question.

Carving Studio Main Building

Abandoned Quarry #1

Abandoned Quarry #2

Abandoned Quarry #3

Marble Monoliths

Abandoned Maypole Extractor

Outdoor carving studios

Possible site for hole

Discarded marble slabs in forest

Sculpture Field North

Sculpture Field South

Abandoned marble work buildings

In the meantime,

I leave you dear readers with three new nude model drawings from my Thursday night open figure session at the Chaffee Art Center nearby, 

a new quilted hankie portrait, 

Day 75-Alive

another great Vermont skyscape; this one of morning fog lifting from the mountains, 

a new quixotic self-portrait entitled “Erotic”,

and a poem bemoaning libido’s apparent high tailing it out of here on the occasion of an actual date with a man.

DEAR LIBIDO

Libby dearest you confuse me.

Six years of glorious solitude.

Content with deep thinking.

Then James calls and shakes it up.

Oh not in the romantic way.

I’m talking about a splash of ice water

Against the warm cheek of my sexual self.

Vamoosed. Not there.

Out on a date with a cumbersome guy.

Fearing his advance and fingers on my knee.

No hormones picked up the call.

A goodbye hug and a peck on my cheek.

Tried to fake it.

Hate his long-lipped moustache.

-April 21, 2012