Augusta artist Jon Doody will be one of the sculptors featured in the Hallowell Granite Symposium next month. He has served as sculptor in residence at Stevens Commons since the spring of 2019, and continues to welcome visitors to his worksite on Saturdays during the farmers market. Photo by Deb Fahy
The first Hallowell Granite Symposium is scheduled to take place next month on the grounds of Stevens Commons, adjacent to Erskine Hall on Beech Street in Hallowell.
The symposium, free and open to all, is set to begin with an opening reception at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the new Old South Congregational Church, 135 2nd St. in Hallowell, featuring a presentation about the history of the granite industry there by Maine State Historian Earle Shettleworth Jr.
From Sept. 11 to 19 six Maine sculptors will transform granite blocks quarried in Hallowell into works of art inspired by one of the four Maine200 Bicentennial themes.
The symposium is organized by the city’s Arts & Cultural Committee, Maine Stone Workers Guild, Historic Hallowell Committee and Vision Hallowell, with major grant support from the Maine2020 Bicentennial Commission.
As much as possible given the pandemic, and with the safety of the audience and artists paramount, the public will be invited to visit the site to watch the sculptures develop daily between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Visitors can vote for their favorite sculpture, and one or more will be permanently placed in downtown Hallowell to commemorate the Maine State Bicentennial. The other sculptures will be available for sale on behalf of the artists through The Harlow Gallery.
A Welcome Center at the symposium site will feature historical displays along with antique tools and other artifacts from the granite industry. A soft stone work area provided by the Maine Stone Workers Guild will offer visitors a hands-on opportunity to do some carving of their own.
The Welcome Center, located in a large open air event tent, will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily when the sculptors are at work.
During the symposium, the Hubbard Free Library plans to feature a month-long display of photographs from its extensive collection of the granite quarries and Hallowell Granite Works. The library building itself, located at 115 2nd St., is a product of the Hallowell Granite Works from the drawing board to its actual construction.
The full event schedule is coming soon at hallowellgranitesymposium.org.
The six participating artists, all professional members of the Maine Stone Workers Guild, include:
Dick Alden of Boothbay has been carving wood and stone for 25 years, full time in mostly marble and granite since 2009 at Starfish Studio, which he shares with his wife and art mate Priscilla May Alden, a fiber artist and printmaker. Alden relishes the “… mentally and physically intensive process of carving and shaping my pieces to exude a rhythmic motion, balance and harmony in the final composition. The challenge is to capture that special spirit which each stone possesses,” according to a news release from the arts & cultural committee.
To view examples of his work, visit portlandartgallery.com.
Participating sculptors will welcome questions and conversations with visitors to the Hallowell Granite Symposium, and visitors will have the opportunity to try their hand at soft stone carving in the Symposium Welcome Center. Photo by Deb Fahy
Jon Doody is an Augusta-based sculptor who has participated in public demonstrations at the Common Ground Country Fair, Boothbay Railway Village and Viles Arboretum, and has been sculptor in residence at Stevens Commons since 2019. “Rising,” a large-scale sculpture of a sturgeon carved out of reclaimed Hallowell granite, was created during his residency and can now be visited at Granite City Park at the Hallowell waterfront.
He blogs about his work at jonthecarver.com.
Mark Herrington of Franklin describes himself as a self-taught artist. “Growing up in Maine as an outdoorsman I found myself being inspired by the glacial erratics that are ubiquitous In the trout streams and ponds of our state. Using the material as the starting point in developing form, each piece is as individual as the stone that I begin with. I bring aesthetic rigor with a passion for minimalism to find something beyond and within the material itself.”
To find out more about Herrington, visit markherrington.com.
Isabel Catherine Kelley, based out of Windham, has been practicing sculpture for several years. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture and minor in art history from Maine College of Art in 2013, she has since shown sculptural work throughout New England.
For more about Kelley, visit icksculpture.com.
Of his artistic process, Dan Ucci states, “Stone takes on many “lives” of its own. One stone can be many things at once. It can be soft and forgiving or it can be hard and stubborn. The natural texture shows one life and by removing portions, changing the texture by polishing, hammering or by adding other materials and using other techniques, I give the stone a new and different life.”
Ucci is based at Ledge Hill Creations in Pittston.
Andreas von Huene of Woolwich creates carefully refined sculpture over a wide range of subjects, media and scales. He delights in developing form and elevating material to develop the character of the piece and give it a dynamic presence.
Visit him online at andreasvonhuene.com.
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