Morton

Last two weeks

2011-11-13T02:43:00.000-08:00

This installation was installed directly west of the exhibited sculptures for the closing, I think it was effective. The big loader and the stone saws are pretty agressive/menacing looking. As you turned away from this toward the site and saw the sculptures there is a realization about the process. Starting with thousands of pounds of raw stone and begining with equipment like this the stone is transformed that into incredible works of art. Thanks for reading and I hope I'll see you at Bergen Rocks 2012, watch this blog for details.

After the speaches were finished and the thankyous were said Amgalan rang the bell 7 times to officially close the event, once for each of the participants. It's really a nice idea that we've been doing since Bergen Rocks began and is done at other symposia too. The resonance of the bell creates finality and causes some misty eyes every time, during the short time it rings we think of the great time we had together and the realization hits that within a very short time we will all be in different parts of the world again. I hope I'll see everyone again.

This is one of Zeng's photos, I think he captured how much fun and fulfillment I get from these events. Whether I am a participant, an organizer or just dropping in to have a look I find sculpture symposia put an indelible smile on my face. Thanks to everybody that came out to lend a hand or to experience the event.

The closing was well attended, I think about 150 arts lovers came out. Speaches by the President of RDC, Red Deer mayor and myself followed by presentaions of gifts and certificates. Afterward, wine and cheese and a chance for people to mingle, speak with the artists, take photos etc. The next morning by 8:30 everyone had left for the airport except Ebru who didn't leave until Tuesday. Holy, things went quiet in a hurry!

I think everyone will enjoy "Summer", what a great piece. Everytime I look at it kickstarts jazz music playing in my head, a lot of people that I talked to thought Chu might be from New Orleans and were a little surprised that the he is actually from China. Like the birds in "Holy Horses" people didn't always notice the bird on the tuba player's shoulder, when they did see it you'd hear thier little exclamation of surprise....."Hey, look at that!"

We used fabric to simulate a base for "Holy Horses" It would have been nice to exhibit the sculptures outside of the canopy, in the sunlight, for the closing but not worth the risk for the short time they would be here. Within a week they will all be at thier new home in the Bergen Sculpture Park.

"Journey of the Phoenix" is complete. All that is left to do is spread the gravel at the base and we are ready for the closing ceremony. It is hard to stop your work a lot of times but in symposia your time is finite so there has to be a time when you have to stop, big sigh of relief and now time to play around and enjoy your work and that of the others. It is kind of difficult to leave your piece behind forever after only seeing it completed for a day or so but also really rewarding to know that it will remain for people to enjoy for a couple of thousand years. Mixed emotions on those notes is not uncommon.

Manda, Amgalan, Mayor Flewelling and Hazel at the closing ceremony. The Flewellings were among the most frequent visitors throughout the event, they stopped in at least a couple of times each week to see the sculptures emerging. I think it's pretty neat to witness the development of the works rather than just seeing the finished pieces. Each time you visit there are little changes that give a hint of where the work is going but it is still a surprise to see the finished works and really nice to have had a chance to get to know the artists a little bit too.

Here you can see the beautiful colors in the yellow marble. 2011 is the year of the rabbit and the year that Li's first son was born. Regardless of those things that make the subject relevant people were intrigued with this stylized work, the polished surface demonstrates the skill and amount of work required to realize a sculpture like this from stone. Chao Li's "Rabbit" is polished out and looks like a million dollars. From any angle the light glistens off the surface, smooth as glass.

Three of the sculptors had to leave before the closing ceremonies, on Thursday RDC president Joel Ward presented those that would be gone before Sunday with a beautiful gift made by local artists. Each of them was a little different, depictions of Alberta landscapes on clay tiles. After working for the day it was pretty typical that we would congregate in one of the townhouses to cook up some grub and unwind. Shaping stone requires some resourcefulness so not having enough glasses to go around is a simple problem to deal with.

Manda helped out with cleaning the site, shopping for little things people needed, driving the truck and worked on "Holy Horses" too. We developed friendships that will last our life times, I hope I'll see them all again in the future somewhere.

Chao Li has finished the carving of his form and now has a couple of days polishing to do. The final finish will be highly polished, it will look great on this yellow marble with red, blue and pink features in it.

Ebru's "Journey of the Phoenix" will be a figure standing on a four piece boat. This is the front of the boat, the textured line down the centre carries on from one piece to the next and creates the impression of flowing water to me. As I mentioned earlier a huge amount of work for only four weeks time.

Well, it's not all work. Alessio picked up a hat when they went to Banff and modeled it for us the next evening. Hmmm, I wonder if he has relatives named Mackenzie?

Close to the end of the event, Jiang Chu is still polishing "Summer" at 11pm or so. He is using polishing pads imbedded with diamonds, water lubricates thepolishing pads. Eventually it will look almost this shiney when it is dry. After the work is finished we all spent some relaxing hours enjoying the works. Here everybody is completed and taking photos with each other etc. All that is left to be done is tidying up and placing the gravel or fabric around the bases.

Alessio finished first, all that remains is to inscribe his name on the base. This is at about 11pm, our typical time to shut down. I think most people think it looks kind of fun to do this work but it really is gruelling to complete such a big work in so short a time. 14 &16 hour days are typical, and along with the physical work that goes into one of these pieces there is a huge mental element involved too. Artists refer to that as "being in the zone", sometimes you are so intently focused that someone might walk right up beside you and you don't even sense they are there. That's one of the reasons, besides the dust and flying chips, that the public has to watch the work from a respectful distance.

The detail of the ear creates an interesting contrast to the simple form of the rest of "I am a Liar". The whole head will be textured like the area in front of the ear, that took Bong Soo two days or more. Doing all of that work with hammer and chisel was tedious and demanding but the result is beautiful.

Min and Shin Ae were amazing, I'm sure they removed more than half of the original material to get to the form and every square inch had to be textured too. The final surface is created with thousands of cuts giving the stone the texture of a huge rope.

Manda and Amgalan have a son who lives in New York, turns out Manda has a U.S. driver's license. That worked out to be handy when I needed to go downtown to the "Elements at River's Edge" building site to bring a loader or other equipment, she would go woth me and drive my truck back. She wasn't sure if she would be able to drive a big truck but she did great.

For the closing we surrounded some of the sculptures with fabric to simulate a base and piled pea gravel around the others to cover the dunnage they sat on. The exhibit really looked nice for the ceremony on Sunday. You'd likely never guess that this is a lady that can shape 10,000lb of stone into an incredible art work. She was always happy (we all are when we are creating art) and worked away at a measured pace. I was often surprised to see her moving on to another block when it seemed she had just started one of the others.

Ebru finished carving only a few hours before the bell rang. Steve and I drilled the boat for the pin that would secure the phoenix to it. Ebru had five blocks to carve, it was a huge job for her, at times I wasn't sure if she could complete in time. I really shouldn't have worried about that, all of the participants are professionals and have a timeline set out for milestones to accomplish through the event in order to ensure they won't get caught behind in the final days.

Bong Soo completed his piece a few days before the end of the event and went right to work
on a smaller, similar, sculpture. This piece was also titled "I am a Liar", it was collected within a few hours of him completing it.

Not only did Amgalan capture the movement of the wind in the tails and mains of the horses but there are birds flying up out of the bushes at the horses feet too. They are subtle, it was neat to see how surprized people were when they discovered them. I heard lots of people saying "hey look at this!" when they realized they were there.

Within three weeks Amgalan's sculpture looked like it was finished but he continued to work on details until the final day. The subject is perfect, horses are an important element in Mongolian culture and in ours. I honestly can't pick favorites but I can say that "Holy Horses" is a stand out piece. Fella's that got dragged out by their wives immediatly quit belly aching, promptly dropped thier jaws on the ground and seemed to start drooling when they saw this piece.

Kim Bong Soo's stone was near the edge of the canopy and he would be in the direct sunlight after lunch until the end of the work day. His hat is perfect for protecting him from the sun (and is really stylish)

Sculptors are quite the sight when they get all geared up to work. Eye and breathing protection are a must, the stone dust dries your hair out so it feels like wire and sucks the moisture out of your skin, your hands are always vulnerable to cuts and scrapes. We pretty much have to cover everything up. (This is Ebru)

Another character that has been following Bergen Rocks since it began. Winston (Winnie) is Brad's loveable Burnese Mountain Dog, he wins over everybody it seems. If you see Brad somewhere you can bet Winnie will be somewhere nearby.

A few nights before the closing we went out to The Vat and enjoyed the live entertainment. It was a nice break from our regular routine of working late, cooking supper and getting off to bed.

Amgalan and Manda didn't know these people, originally from Mongolia, who live in Calgary but they came up to visit anyway. They had a nice visit and loved Amgalan's work. I'm sure it was nice to have a chance to speak in Mongolian for all of them. Again, small world.

Chao Li's cousin happens to live in Edmonton and came down for an afternoon, it's nice to run into someone you know when you're half way around the globe. Small world.

When the stones are still blocks we pretty much just roll them around but after some of the work is done it's important to be careful when moving them to prevent damage. Here one line holds the sculpture from rolling over too far while the loader is standing the stone up. The Calgary Stampede was over but there is a rodeo on somewhere near every weekend during the summer in Alberta. On the 21st we stopped working a little early so we could take in the rodeo in Bowden. Not as big and fancy as the show Calgary puts on but non the less the sculptors got a taste of real cowboy action. They had a gas but none wanted to try out a bull themselves.

Chao Li was accompanied by his assistant, Zheng Zeng. He is a first rate photographer so along with Brad's we have plenty of great shots from this year's event. One of Zeng's sisters lives in Vancouver so after the symposium they spent a week there visiting before returning home to China.

We had the pleasure of being hosted to a barbeque at the home of Red Deer Mayor, Morris Flewelling, and his wife, Hazel. They are great supporters of the arts and have been following Bergen Rocks since it began. Last year they came out to Bergen with the President of Red Deer College and his wife........the move to RDC ensued.

The Flewellings are great cooks, after a first class meal we relaxed in their lovely yard late into the night and had a nice visit. We're fortunate to have such enthusiastic supporters.

Ebru is ready to place the phoenix figure onto the boat, Brad and Steve rigged it up and gave me directions while I operated the loader.

I met Brad in 1985 when we worked on a drilling rig together, after he left that industry he became a professionsal photographer but he still remembers how to work like a roughneck. Here he is manning one of the big saws making a cut on Chao Li's sculpture. The depth of the cut is controlled by shortening or lengthening the strap he's holding. My daughter Jessica came over whenever she could make it (I think she is hooked) and helped out with chores around the site. She also baked fresh cinnimon rolls, brought Timmy's etc. She doesn't drive so she would show up on her bicycle with this stuff .

About 2 weeks into the event I got an email out of the blue from Zoe Riemer, an arts student at Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. She thought it would be fun to come up and give us a hand, I'm not sure if her perception turned out the way she thought it would but she had a big smile on her face most of the time. She likely picked a couple of tons of stone and never seemed to mind, it is wonderful to have people just show up and want to help out (and have a great time doing it).

Another shot of Steve Turner, volunteer exrtrodinare. Many of the photos this year are provided by Brad Calihoo who has been photographing my exploits in art for many years now. He takes great shots, I'm really happy to share his images here. You can tell his shots from mine by the copyright symbol at the bottom and that they are hands down better than the ones I take. I point my camera in the same direction as he does but mine just don't have that little edge that his do. A lot of people think there is no need to hire a pro now that cameras are so easy to use but have a look at Brad's shots, I just can't get pics like this it seems.

Moore Maintenance from Red Deer provided the heavy equipment for moving the stones, owner Jeremy Moore was often on hand to operate the machines too. After the event was over he also hauled the rubble pile away (about 30,000lb). As he came up from time to time Jeremy was able to follow the evolution of the sculptures throughout the event, he's another person that's "got it" now, I'm sure he'll be back next year.

August 18

2011-08-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

August 18

The old blue saw has been a workhorse again this year. Without this equipment it would not be possible to realize some of the sculptures in only one month. We made some modifications to it this year, it's looking better all the time.

Amagalan is taking a break and stretching his back on the inversion table. He could save time and set it up by his sculpture then work while resting.

Min's sculpture is really taking shape now, it's amazing how quickly he and Shin Ae are working this stone. We have three kinds of marble this year, yellow that Li Chao is using for his rabbit, milky white-Min's stone and crystal white that all the others are using.

Last night we cut the rough space below the rabbit's ears, now it's easier to see where he is going.

Second week

2011-08-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Aug 13

Brad Calihoo made it down this weekend too. He has been at all of the Bergen Rocks events, helping out and always has his camera close at hand. He takes a lot better shots than I do, check out some of them at http://www.bergenrocks.facebook.com/

Will Truchon, Edmonton Sculptor and architect came down for the second weekend. Last week he assisted Ebru with the gas axe, this weekend he got back on that helping oput Uk.

Alessio made a huge leap forward on his form but he still has a lot of detail. This afternoon's cuts shaved well over 1000 lbs off his stone.

Many people are curious about Ebru's work, made from five pieces I think it is pretty hard to envision where she is going with it.

Bong Soo had us stand his up today, it will likely stay in this orientation until he is finished now. Most everyone can see what it will be now but still really interesting to see what details he will include.

Connie, of the general public, read the signs along the fence warning that marble dust can be a hazard. She didn't have a facemask with her but quickly improvised one.

Boots weren't quite waterproof....sculptors are imaginative or maybe just like a bunch of kids sometimes. Did the job though.

First week

2011-07-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Aug 7

Bong Soo removed a lot of stone to get to his basic form, now he is begining to shape it. It is already starting to get dark, 9:00pm and still working. We were finished by 9:3o though so only a little more than 12 hours today.

Li Chao has also removed a lot of stone, his marble is yellow with salmon colored streaks. I think it is going to polish nicely.

Amgalan's assistant and wife Manda, she is very nice and helps out around the site as well as assisting Amgalan.

Jiang Chu's piece is really taking shape, really it has been coming along steadily but today we stood it up and you can easily recognize the basic image I think.

August 5

Min arrived on Wed and began working on his stone Thursday morning so he is a week behind everyone else. He cut the base flat on the first day, we stood it up today. He is beginning to work at removing material on the sides, his is the largest stone at about 24,000 lb!

Bong Soo also has a very large stone, about 22,000 lb. He has removed a lot of stone with the big saw, now he is drilling to remove another large piece that will wiegh about 3,000 or 4,000lb.
First Week

Aug 28 RDC hosted an opening ceremony before work began. Red deer Mayor, Morris Flewelling and College President Joel Ward spoke to the group that attended, welcoming the sculptors. After lunch we began to make stone dust. Each evening some of the sculptors are working, sometimes until 9pm or so which makes a long day of it for all of us.

On Tuesday a long black limosine arrived to take the group on their first expedition in Alberta, to the sculpture park in Bergen. My nieghbor, Ed Stacy took them for a wagon ride behind a team of beautiful Norwegian Fjord horses. On the way through Sundre we stopped at A&W for Teen Burgers, some thought root beer tastes funny.

Stone has arrived

The stone has arrived and been placed in the working area at RDC. Three shipping containers of marble (three types) and one block of basalt are now on site. In the next three days I have to get all of the equipment up to the site, Elements at River's Edge is providing a cargo trailer to serve as the tool crib, that will really be handy. Two sculptors arrive on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and one Thursday afternoon. Opening ceremonies take place before the work begins Thursday morning. The next few days are going to be really busy for everyone, it's exciting to know that we will be cutting stone in less than a week's time.

2011 Participants

2011-01-13T19:46:00.000-08:00

Bergen Rocks 2011

Participants

Thank you to everyone that sent proposals for our symposium this year. There were more than 170 proposals for only 5 positions, it is very difficult to chose so few. We are very happy to announce that a sponsor, Elements at Rivers Edge, has partnered with Bergen Rocks to allow us to invite 3 more sculptors this year. It was a very difficult task for the selection panel, there were so many proposals that we would like to include. As the event grows we hope we will be able to host more artists each year. The selection committee had a huge task, the artists chosen for this year below:
Alessio Ranaldi- Italy
Kyoung Min Uk- Korea
Amgalan Tsevegmid-Mongolia

Kim Bong Soo-Korea Jiang Chu-China

Ebru Akinci- Turkey

Chao Li-China

Jean Paul Chablais-France

was awarded an important commission that he must complete during the time of the symposium- unfortunately he will not be able to participate and realize his proposed sculpture "Dancing Figure". We will have seven sculptors rather than eight as planned.

New Venue!!!!!!

Bergen Rocks will be hosted this year on campus at Red Deer Collge, in Red Deer Alberta.

Along with the new venue is a new name:

Bergen Rocks RDC!!!

I am so pleased with this development, being held in a larger centre will make it much easier for people to come out and witness the transformation of raw stone into monumental works of art. The site will be open to the public everyday except Tuesdays when the participants will take a day off and enjoy a trip to some of the sights around Alberta.

Volunteer Opportunities

It is interesting and unique to have the opportunity to visit the work site and witness 100,000 of raw marble being transformed into art works that will remain in our society for at least 2000 years, even take a piece home with them that was chipped off their favorite sculpture.

The sculptures are very large and there are only 27 working days over the month, some of the works could not be completed without assistance. People who would like to assist the international artists can sign up by emailing me decker1@telus.net For out of town volunteers we can provide meals and accomodations on campus. Let me know what dates are best for you and I'll confirm with you.

Schedule

July 15- --------------A little more than 100,000 lb of white marble with grey streaks, similar to the marble from BC used in the first three symposia will arrive from Viet Nam

July 25-27 -----------The sculptors will arrive from Mongolia, China, Korea, Turkey, Italy

July 28----------------Opening Ceremonies in the morning, working on the stones begins after lunch. It's easy to find on campus as it will be staged beside the large oil derrick, take the main entrance into the College and take your first left. Follow around until you see the parking lot with the oil derrick on your right and park there to walk to the site. For more information and directions go to http://www.rdc.ab.ca/

August 28-----------An official closing ceremony will be held Sunday, 5:00-7:00. Go to http://www.rdc.ab.ca/ for more information.

Aug 31---------------The sculptors will depart, maybe have a chance for a day at the lake before heading home.

Haslla Art World

2010-10-20T03:57:00.001-07:00

Haslla Art World, Korea
I had the pleasure of spending five weeks in Korea where I sculpted a totem pole from granite. It was a wonderful, yet frantic, experience. I am pleased with the result and will hold memories of my time there forever. The people were warm and welcoming, the material was beautiful (although very hard), the food was beautiful and delicious.

Scroll to the bottom of this post and click "previous posts" then scroll down to the begining of Haslla to see my whole trip chronologically.

After taking pictures I hurried to get my things packed. This is the last thing I saw as I left on the bus. We got to the station 2 minutes before the bus left. As always between artists hugs, heartfelt goodbyes and promises to see each other again. This is my last photo at Gangneung, Professors Shin Jung Park, Choi Ok Young and Noell El Farro. Some Fear No Art stickers were distributed in Korea (about 500). It will be cool to hear that someone has seen one and as a result "bumped" into someone who I have known in the past. There are about 2000 of them out there now, mostly in China, Russia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Korea, Canada and some in many other countries (too many to list) taken there by artists I have had the good fortune to work with.

One of the hotel staff came up with us this morning and took a picture of Noell and I beside "Finding Your Way" Each element has a meaning in Canadian native lore, a totem pole is read from bottom to top-the lowest is the most important or subject of the piece, gives a new perspective to "low man on the totem pole".

Inukshuk -Finding your way

Frog -Stability

Beaver - Hard work

Dragon fly -Creativity

Eagle - Wisdom

Whale - Travel (I incorporated a whale form in the design on the wings)

Taken from the base looking up, this is the view visitors who come up closely will see the sculpture, the terrain is very steep so you will actually stand below the sculpture. I am pleased, could have worked another month on it but in the time I'm happy with the result...

I didn't get great shots but Noell promised to take some more pics during his remaining two weeks and email them. I don't know how he will do it as his sculpture is a big job and he is working hard to stay on his schedule. I included something decorative in each element, on the frog his spots are actually starbursts, you can just make them out if you look closely. Each element also included some polish and the sun was glinting off of them this morning, beautiful I think.

Today I leave for Canada, got up at 6am to catch the sun coming up on my sculpture. The location is awesome, right at the top of a very steep mountain. The eagle looks out over the rest of the open air museum, hotel and the ocean. I have never seen an eagle here but this morning there was one sitting in a tree beside my sculpture, it flew off down the valley on the other side as we approached. I really don't go in for the esoteric much but there seems to be a lot of unexplainable stuff happens in sculpture. From material problems turning into wonderful developments that would never have happened otherwise (Tanja Roeder Bergen Rocks 2010) to things like the eagle appearing beside my sculpture this morning, makes me wonder........

Nov 2

Late this afternoon we started the installation of "Finding Your Way" I worked like crazy all day to finish some details, the crane was loading the pieces as I finished them and so I didn't get a chance to take a photo on site of the finished work. I didn't remember to engrave my name (not terribly important to me) which we usually do after everything else is finished so technically this could be a work in progress I guess. If I ever get the opportunity I can carve another element that would be placed between two of those that are completed as it is assembled from .5 meter blocks. The crane had to make it's way up the mountain etc, darkness came quickly. By the time we were ready to install the wings it was completely dark, we were working by flashlight. When the installation was complete we went back to Haslla Hotel and had a beautiful supper, I was completely relaxed for the first time in weeks. The work was completed and I didn't have to rush back out to the work site after supper. Nov 1

Four busloads of school children showed up this morning. They are really cute all in matching uniforms complete with backpacksw. I have learned a little Korean, called out "awe zao yogi" to get their attention, "hello, over here".

On Oct 29 two sculptors that I worked with for a month in Russia drove to Haslla to visit. It was a double reunion as Lee Sang Heon (on left) had shown with Prof. Choi in Seoul 25 years ago. Kim Bong Soo is seated next to Sang Heon. I know him as Bong Soo Kim so Prof. We went to a restaraunt where you cook your food at your table in a big skillet that is built into the centre of the table. We drank soju (18% wine) mixed with beer, they call it Pok Tan Ju (liquor bomb) ju is the word for alcohol. Quite good but can sneak up on you!!

The head of the eagle is blocked out now. I will start to detail it and create some cheeks and jaw muscles but it will still be stylized in following with traditional wood totem poles. Ghang zun in Korean language.

The eagle's head is the last piece to begin working on. When it is basically finished I will start to detail it and the other forms. The nose and eyes of the eagle will be polished, some decorative designs on the wings of the dragon flies etc.

L-R- Crocodile made from staples, Me, Park, Shin Jung (President of Haslla) and Prof Choi, Ok Young (founder of Haslla)

The dining room staff are always really pleasant and super attentive. L-R Chung, So Young and Soon Mia.

A small group of students visited this day, they are all interested in what I am doing. In Korean the closest I can come is Changzun for the word "totem pole", my pronounciation is not quite right as I have to repeat myself several times before they get the connection.

A really nice man is the grounds keeper and although he doesn't speak english (really I should say "as I am in Korea and don't speak thier language", we kind of communicate by sign language. When he brought this snake over he didn't have to say anything anyway. It is some kind of poisonous viper but my close up shots of it's head didn't come out in focus.

I took this photo at 3:30 am when I came down to work, I couldn't get up high enough to get everything in the shot but you can see half of the eagles wings and the design, I think they will look pretty nice when they are dry (raining and windy this am) as the design is polished out to 3000 grit so it will be black, the rest will be almost white because it is a chiseled surface. There is the form of a whale in the ovals at middle and top of the wings. Now that I am near completion and my time is running out I am working long hours, yesterday from 3 am until 10:40 pm. It reminds me of "The night of long knives" in St. Jean Port Joli, Quebec. The last night of thier snow sculpture event artists are allowed to work from 8am Saturday until noon on Sunday, almost all of them do, adreneline keeps you going....About every hour the organizers come around with hot refreshments and snacks etc. Same thing here at Haslla, the organizers and staff work really hard at making sure we have the things we need to keep our moral up our bodies working. I think if they didn't come and take me from the work site for breakfast, lunch and supper I would forget most of the time.

I should have made a point of checking out how the paste is made but this is the press in action. It pushes the buck wheat mixture through a sieve, the paste must be really thick because it takes a pile of force to get it to come through the holes in the press as you can see.

A couple of days ago we visited a noodle house for lunch. The noodles that are traditional to Gang Neuon province are made from buck wheat and delicious. Two other artists that are helping out during the festival that is on at Haslla came with us. The girl on the left is a media artist, the

other is a painter. Both are graduates from Prof. Park's university in Seoul. The press that makes the noodles is behind us.

Kyan, the owner of the stone supply company and a really talented sculptor himself. When we visited his stone yard I saw a huge oriental stlye dragon he is working on, 50 tonnes - that is 110,000lb!! He is a really nice guy, rode his Harley, the only one I've seen in Korea, out to Haslla on Sunday to visit and brought me fried chicken and a coke. Must have thought that I missed "traditional Canadian food" but I don't (I'm not sure if I mentioned how delicious the food is here)

Noell has been here for a little more than a week now. He is working on design of his piece in the work shop behind us, he will be working in glass and stainless steel. I have had many inspirations during my time here, Noell is very creative and as we discuss arts in general new ideas flow for both of us. The atmosphere and on site support that Haslla provides for the artists really helps us to do the best work that we can, win/win situation.
Oct 26-Git er done

We went to the city and chose a block for the wings, ready to begin work with the outline drawn.

Today I cut a slot in the body of the eagle for his wings, with the stone cutting chainsaw provided by River City Developments in Red Deer it took less than 1/2 hour. I think it would be a full day's work or more to do this by conventional methods.
Oct 22

I have learned that most cultures have totem poles. These are Korean traditional totem poles, they are usually placed at the entrance to a city or town and offer protection. These are at the University of Gangneung in front of the fine arts buildings.

The stone sculpture department at the university, they have stone from all over the world in many colors and a well equiped shop. I was drooling over the rose, pink, black and pure white marble.

This is another of Prof Choi's monuments, the columns are 18m, they stand in a pool with huge stones the shape of the continents. One column represents education, another work and the third life at home...elements of a successful life. The columns are reflections or in rhythm with the architecture of the library behind. On the left Noell and Prof Choi are standing in front of the stone mural which is also part of the sculpture.

Rice for the restaraunt is grown right outside, harvested rice is hung to dry in this photo.

The home at the restauraunt is more than 300 years old, doors, ceilings and all are works of skilled craftsmen and artists.

Our communication is not excellent but I understand that this lady is Prof Choi's grandmother's sister. I'm not very good at that lineage thing but I think that would make her a great aunt. I also understand that she provides the recipes for the traditional foods they serve, it was delicious and beautiful.

This monument and the busts shown above are one of the monuments created by Prof. Choi. Too bad it was raining all day but if it hadn't been I would likely have stayed at Haslla and worked.

These are sculptures where we went to select stone for the wings of the eagle. Kyan the owner is also a very talented artist.

We went to Gangneun city today as it was rainy and cold. I needed material for the wings of my eagle which we got at the stone shop owned by the man across from me. He is a sculptor also, besides looking at raw stone I spent quite some time looking at the sculptures he has there at his shop, inspiring for sure. He was very interested to see the stone cutting chainsaw I brought with me, he hadn't seen one before. It has saved me a pile of time, big thanks again to Ken from River City Developments in Red Deer for providing that machine. He has been a strong supporter of Bergen Rocks, sponsor of Elements in Ice (the winter arts festival we have started in Red Deer, fashioned after Ice, Wood and Fire an arts festival the Atti2ude club created in Sundre 2005) in addition to promoting artists and the arts through other events he sponsors/coordinates. I think the arts have a difficult time being successful without a driving force and someone that will voice a positive opinion like Ken does. The artist seated beside Kyan is Prof. Noell Elfaro from Philippines. I have worked with him at a couple of different events in the past, really nice to renew aquaintences. He works in a diverse array of mediums that inspires me to branch out, glass, metal, wood, sound, light, optics, kinetics...........

A work in progress by the sculptor shown a couple of pictures up, the detail is incredible.

I have had a couple of days to work on details, with those either designed or finished I can move ahead with the other two elements of my piece, the eagle head and wings. Here is the body with traditional decorative features.

My worksite doesn't look a lot different than it did in the last picture I posted but a lot has been done. Some details on the frog, beaver's head, eagle's body and the dragonflies are complete. I like to keep my working area neat ande clean, this picture is taken before starting work today but looks about the same except for tools while I am working.

I really liked this bench and the rest of the sculpture that it was part of but I didn't get a good picture of the whole thing. At least I got a pretty good shot of this portion of the sculpture. The rest was a tall vertical construction in the same style, reminding of folded cloth or paper. I can't read the interpretations so have to imagine what the representation is.

I can't do justice with a camera to the view from my hotel but this gives you an idea of what I see out the window when I wake up. Actually I think I have only seen this a couple of times as I usually walk up the hill to my work area before daylight to get started and make good use of every daylight hour I can.
A functional sculpture in one of the sculpture parks we stopped to see on the way back to Haslla, a chair. We aren't always serious of course so a little hamming it up for the camera.

On the return trip from Busan we stopped at another city that is steeped in culture. The history goes back thousands of years and they have a big park committed to the culture there. This tower was really something, from the top you can look out over the whole city. The negative space has the same shape as a famous temple here.

I have seen several log houses, this street in Busan reminds me a lot of Banff. Actually a lot of similarities with Alberta; pine trees, dragonflies, crows, mountains, etc. Sometimes I forget I am on the other side of the world.

Viewed from the other side of the room you can see each one is painted with bright colors. Is this talking about summer and winter or before and after a nuclear event....makes you think anyway.

This installation was in another venue, a warehouse turned into a gallery. As you can see there are a few thousand plant forms, they are cut from stainless steel by laser. I think the bienelle runs for a couple of months. Includes a film festival and lots of other artsy events.

An installation, I think it was titled "Evolution".

The Museum of Fine Art was one of the venues, we spent at least two hours doing a whirlwind tour, I liked this piece that included photography, weaved human hair and eggs.

Functional art is really neat, I thought this bench was great.

I am negligent in not making a note of artists names or titles of the works, this constructive sculpture is from granite. Although my sculpture here seems pretty big to me this puts it in perspective.

This is one of the sculptures done at the bienelle, just to give you an idea of the scale I made sure someone was in the picture.

On Saturday Prof Choi took me along with three other sculptors to Busan to see the Bienelle there, it is an incredible art festival. Anyway, the Gorilla restaraunt was beside our hotel and I thought the wording on the sign outside the door was humorous. My translation into Korean would be a lot worse than this but I still get a chuckle seeing some of signs and advertising. I could write a book about translations, eg. when Carlos from Cuba was here last year I wanted to tell him that a bottle of stone sealer was not polish. I use a translation program on the computer so typed in "the product in the blue bottle is for sealing" The back translation said "the product in the blue bottle is for killing seals" My next try was "it is for sealing the stone" it came back as "for putting a postage stamp on the stone" ....had to phone someone that speaks Spanish to get that point across.

Ok and I at my work site. He is a sculpture graduate of Gangneung University. I think there is something about the diet here and in much of Asia that keeps these people looking young, Ok is 29. Fresh vegetables, kim chee, and soup with every meal has to be healthful.

Year and model? Definately a Jag.

For the car buffs, I guess it is a little off topic but there are a lot of "rides" here that are works of art. I don't know what make this one is but had a lot of carbon fiber parts, billet rims etc. I can't take time to get photos of all the neat wheels here but today I decided to walk around the parking lot and take some shots for the boys...ha ha, you would be drooling.

The hotel staff are great folks, we have good laughs despite my limited Korean, actually that is likely the source a lot of times. I have learned water, thank you, hello, etc. Seem to get along pretty good with a limited vocabulary, reading and writing is impossible for me.

There are dragon flies everywhere, that inspired me to include them in my sculpture. All of the children recognize them immediatly...chum cha dee is the phonetic spelling for the Korean word, frog is kay goo dee and beaver is....beaver. If I had to make a sculpture for every word I learn it would take me a thousand years to start speaking Korean. After roughing out I have to decide on details I can do with the tools and time I have. The dragon flies will get some decorative design on the wings and body.

Oct 18

Haslla Art World

2010-10-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Haslla Art World, Korea, Scroll down to begining of Haslla (most recent posts are at the top)

This is an action shot, I am chiseling off the little diamond shapes shown in the picture below. I am using the hammer (mallet in sculpting terms) quite lightly because I am very close to the surface I want but when taking bigger pieces I would be swinging the mallet with a lot more force and chips would be flying 20 feet or more. Sometimes the pieces flying off sound like a bullet whizzing through the air if they get the right spin. It gets pretty mundane but still important to focus as a little mistake can't be taken back and this sculpture should be around for more than 1000 years so I don't want to have any big bashes in it when it isn't even completed yet.
To get the rough shape we cut "frets" or grooves and chisel them off, as I get closer to my surface the frets get closer together and then when only wanting to take off a little bit I cut cross hatches. These are about 1/8" deep, after they are chiseled off I will smoth the surface even more with a diamond blade on a grinder like shown on the grinder in the picture below.

These are pretty much all of the tools I am using. L to R; bushing hammer, die grinder, angle grinder, hammer, point chisel, bigger bushing hammer, flat chisel, level, depth guage. I keep my tools organized and it saves me a lot of time not having to look for a tool that might be beside, behind, under my sculpture.

There is a picture of this element earlier in the blog, now it should be pretty obvious I think....kids love it and as in the previous picture details remain to be done. In Korean it is called Kay Goo Dee, we call it a frog. The sun is reflecting off the polished surface.

This one is roughed out, details remain. The areas that are darker are polished to a 3000 grit to create contrast. The more it is polished the darker it will become, chiseled surfaces appear white even on black stone but this is pinkish granite with white and black flecks. This is about as dark as it will get.

I thought I better take a few more pictures of my sculpture, here they are and a little explaination about the process. My overall work space is pictured here, I have gotten into 5 of the 8 blocks I will use.

It is rice harvest time, these are sheaves of rice placed over the guard rails to dry, it goes on for miles. There is lots of rice laid out on tarps in the fields drying too.

This is a tomb site near the temple, these tombs are more than 1000 years old. Buried here are important monks. My province, Alberta, just celebrated it's 100 birthday. Of course we have history going back much further than that but we generally don't recognize it as there are no records. The names of the monks buried here are inscribed on the granite tomb stones.

Professors Park and Choi and I traveled to a Budist temple where we also had lunch. The temple was beautiful, really nice to experience some of the culture while I am here.
Today is a special day on the lunar calendar, it is believed that on this day the gates to heaven are open for souls who's date of death isn't known which causes them to be stuck between this world and the next. Relatives or friends can go to a temple and pray for them to move on to the next world.

Oct 16

These aren't just little guys as you can see. There is a glass kiln at the university big enough for these monster glass sculptures......cool!

After I had coffee today I noticed that the sun was at a great angle for the sunlight to really "work" with these glass sculptures of Prof. Choi's. My camera was at an angle too but I post this pic anyway as I am so busy I might not get another shot with the light on these like this again.

More art just outside the coffee shop. Pretty sure that they were made in one of the children's workshops that they have almost every day. I think most kids take thier art home with them but obviously some are left behind, those pieces end up being displayed somewhere in the park like these.

This is the inside of the coffee shop, outside is a deck that overlooks the ocean.

There is so much art at Haslla that you just wouldn't notice it all in one visit, I hadn't noticed this piece since I got here over two weeks ago and it is right beside the coffee shop. I guess I am not looking hard enough.

Oct 15
Today I worked pretty steadily all day long, by the end of tommorrow I would like to have three more pieces roughed out.
There were at least 200 students came today, one group of about 100 kindergarten age, they all take part in some kind of art activity. Haslla gets them working with clay, paper, paints......something artsy for them to have fun and make something to take home, a great way to build kids confidence and increase thier appreciation for art at a young age. What really impresses me when I come to these other countries is the understanding of arts by the general public, something that starts at a young age as demonstrated by all of these students showing up here everyday. There are a lot of tourists too. I have talked to quite a few as my work area is right beside the parking lot. They are very interested in what I am doing, if I happen to be having a break we quite often end up visiting a little. I've chatted with hundreds over the years at other events like this. They tell me they seek out art venues and events when they travel, I wonder if tourists would have the same interests where I live .......hmmm
October 14
After the opening a group of us went out for dinner and afterward had a discussion about art for a couple of hours. Several of these sculptors are students of Prof Choi, some work at Haslla. Did I mention the food, not only is it delicious, it is also colorful and beautiful. I can't believe it but we actually ate almost all of it.
Again I am missing a name but the artist is in this photo with her fabric art. I'm coming home with another one that one of Prof Choi's colleages from the university here did, will exhibit it in the gallery at Bergen Rocks 2011.
There were several fabric artists in the show, this fabric sculpture was about 9 feet or so tall and composed of 4 gold and copper colored elements, elegant.

I`m not sure who's this sculpture is but I thought it was really neat and the stone is beautiful too, black marble with yellow/gold viens.

The whole series was about 10 photographs but I can`t put them all on here, these two give you the idea. The Museum in Gang Neun had an opening of an exhibition this evening, Prof. Choi and a couple of the sculptors that work at Haslla full time had works included in the show. There was also fabric art, paintings and some really cool photographs. This artist made a wood frame house, placed it in different places in nature and then shot photos. He allowed me to take pictures of his pictures, for me the idea that these are places we live in (or intrude in) was inspired. Maybe humans are the only ones on earth that actually change the landscape rather than just coexist with nature. Art works like this cause you to think a bit about our footprint. I think Steven Hawking said we are going to send it all to heaven in a handbasket within 200 years!

Oct 13

The "Women of Northeast Asia" 2010 conference was held at Haslla today, in the evening they had a wind up that included traditional Korean dancers, they were really talented and the costumes were out of this world. Really nice to get to experience some authentic culture of Korea, (and the food, did I mention the food?)

Another group of school children, at least a few bus loads of them everyday. I get a real kick out of showing them my work and they do too I think. All ages up to university students come in groups, the younger ones are great (they all are). It is nice to see the education system here taking an interest in art. Two of the conversational english teachers with this group are Canadians, a couple from Toronto, vacationing in Korea, stopped in later in the day, we had a nice chat.
Oct.12
This is my working area with six of my stones and a corner of the seventh peeking out from the back. The inukshuk is really the only one that is pretty much finished. The eighth stone is not on site yet, it will be about 3 times the size of these. Holy! I still have a lot of work to do and only a little over two weeks left, will have to keep at it during all daylight hours to complete my work successfully.

I realized I haven't posted much about my sculpture, it is coming along slowly. Three elements of eight are roughed out. Do you recognize this one? When the piece is assembled I think this is one that everyone in the world over the age of about three years would know what it is........

After the bride and groom are married and walk down the isle the guests fire off confetti cannons, then they clean all up and do the pictue thing.
Here they are during the ceremony, I was encouraged to go up and take some photos, wish I had taken more as many didn't turn out very well. The meal after the ceremony was fancy-fancy stuff and DELICIOUS, I think all of the food is. Today there was a "small" (only 300 guests) wedding at Haslla, I took a few hours off and attended the ceremony and meal afterwards. It was quite similar to the weddings we have in Canada, they even played "Here Comes the Bride".
Oct 8
I really could post a million photos but am just too busy, it took 7 of my 28 days to actually get into the stone, so now I have only 20 or so days remaining. Maybe when I return home there will be interest in a slide show and could include other countries I have been to. Well, maybe.....
One of the rooms in the hotel, the sculpture doubles as a sink (or the other way around). Founder of Haslla Prof, Choi Ok Yeoung is peeking through the door. This is the banquet hall, meetings and weddings are held here. The sculpture at the front doubles as a lecturn, it is on a platform a few feet higher than the floor. Wow! The park is visited by a lot of people each day, on weekdays student tours are popular. These children are about 5 yrs I would guess. As they approach the park giggling and squealing comes from the whole group, sometimes two bus loads at a time. Wonderful to see the education system taking advantage of this unique facility in their area and to see the children enjoying their field trips so much.

Yesterday I actually started to work, after having some problems sourcing stone we found suitable material right here on site, the design had to be modified to fit the stone. I will model each element before carving. My sculpture will utilize 9 of these half meter tall blocks of granite. It is really nice material (and really hard) black and brown flecks on a slightly pinkish background. Canadians will recognize the inukshuk shown here but have you any idea what the form will be with all nine blocks assembled?

October 7

I could spend the whole day posting pics and telling a little about them but I really have a bee in my bonnet to get working on my own sculpture. I came with a design ready to realize in stone but now that I am here I may design a piece based on impressions generated from my time here and the artistic atmosphere. Now I will go to the studio and make models in clay, yesterday I made two. I would like to provide five or so, the park curator will choose. The location is another task, depending on the subject I will choose a place where my sculpture will "work".

Solid granite chairs, I can't read Korean so I am not sure about the artist's statement but during the short time I was in this area I saw several families taking pictures with children and adults sitting on the chairs. It is great to see artworks that people can interact with rather than simply looking, this is something you can experience rather than just view.

You don't have to look very hard to find art here, in some places even the paving stones are carved. Here there are about 100 carved stones among the others. Children and adults alike have a nice time finding them. It would take hours (or days) to find all of the art in this park.

This is an installation, it creates a feeling of awe and wonderment to experience an exhibit such as this. The hanging sculptures are made from a primitive material, cow dung. There are several other installations throughout the park.

There are so many exhibit areas in the park you can easily become lost, and so much art that one trip around is not enough. Additionally Haslla is in constant development, when it is finished it will cover 27 acres. A monorail is being built that will allow young and old alike to see the whole park, impossible otherwise I think as the terrain is very steep. In the background you can see the roof of the hotel, inside are conference rooms, restaurant, galleries........You wouldn't believe it! Professor Choi Ok Yeoung, founder of Haslla and one of the many glass sculptures he has created. Placed throughout the park, these constructive glass sculptures are incredible (I'm sure I will use this word too many times but will try to mix in awesome, wonderful, beautiful, wild etc) I am honored to create an art work here.

Sept 29-Oct 6
I traveled to Korea the end of September to participate in a residency program at Haslla Art World. I was really surprised to reccieve an open invitation to create an art work here, Professor Choi had seen two of my sculptures in Viet Nam that he liked ("The Heart of Viet Nam", wood 2008, now installed in the Saigon Tourist Sculpture Park in Ho Chi Minh City and "Ice, Wood and Fire"/in collaboration with Tracy Ward and Shirley Paradis; wood, glass, metal and light, 2005, now in the collection of Penza Museum of Fine Art in Russia). Although I knew it was incredible place I had no idea until I arrived what it really is. I could carry on and on about the facility, I will try to let the photos suffice.

Haslla Art World and Museum

Start to Mid Bergen Rocks 2010

2010-08-26T13:20:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 2010, international Sculpture Symposium

This post and the previous two document the event. We have so much fun and do so much work in the short 1 month that it isn't possible to post pictures of everything but if you follow through these you'll get a rough idea of what happens along the journey of creating works of art that will last in our society for millenium into the future. The site is open to the public throughout the event so people can see these sculptures being created and if they like can even have a chance to assist in the creation process. (volunteers are always needed and welcome)

This isn't really the begining of Bergen Rocks 2010, plans and preparations have been taking place since Nov 09. Two weeks ago we took a four day trip to Vernon BC to locate stone, these are the boulders that will be turned into fantastic works of art over the month of July. All of them are marble, Saeid is the only sculptor that will use sandstone this year. This truckload of stone arrived on June 28 and at the same time that Peerapong arrived from the airport. He climbed onto the trailer before his stone was unloaded and inspected it. His comment when asked if it was a good one. "I love my stone". I'm sure it is going to be lovable to all in a month's time. This is Saeid's sandstone and my girlfreind Christine. We noticed a crack in the stone that wasn't evident when we loaded and brought it here. So, we cleaved it with wedges and blocked the larger top piece up for the crane to take off when the marble arrived.

The Participants

Peerapong Doungkaew-Thailand

Peerapong was a participant in Bergen Rocks 2008 where he created "Movement in Space" from sand stone. Everyone that visits the Bergen Sculpture Park enjoys this sculpture`. This year he is working in marble, his sculpture will be titled "Rising Sun".

Saeid Ahmadi-Iran

Saeid has lived in Ukraine for 17 years but is still an Iranian citizen. He is exploring stress and tension for his Doctoral thesis. The sculpture he creates here will be a part of that study and titled "Repression"

Domenico (Tony) Di Guglielmo/Canada

Tony is the first Canadian to participate, he's from Quebec. I spent a month in Russia with Tony and his wife Ermenia in 2008, they have new grandchildren and Ermenia stayed in Quebec to help their daughter out with the twins. Tony is creating a piece titled "Canuck", it will be exciting to see it finished.

Tanja Roder/Germany

Bergen Rocks 2010 is symposium number 45 for Tanja. She has monumental torsos placed throughout Europe, New Zealand.....She also has one in St John Port Joli in Quebec. We are so pleased to host Tanja and assist her in realizing another sculpture that will be enjoyed by Canadians until long after the story of it's creation is lost.

Mohamad Reza Yazdi/Iran

Mohamad is a brilliant young man, already having been credited with several important sculptures in his home country. We are glad to host him in Canada where he will create a sculpture of a goat, an animal that is important in the culture of his home country. I'm looking forward to the next month working with Mohamad, his sculpture will be beautiful and help to share his culture with us for a long-long time to come.

Carlos Rafael Valazquez Darias, Cuba

The short video above shows how Carlos was treated, by our consulate in Cuba (his stone behind the tractor) as a professional artist who would come to Canada and create an art work that would be enjoyed by our society for centuries into the future. He has sculpted in Quebec and at Bergen Rocks 09 demonstrating that he is willing to come to Canada and share his artistic talents with the public and other artists. This year he was refused a visa dispite letters of support from Sculptors Association of Alberta, Stone Sculptor's Guild of North America, Prairies 2 Peaks Tourism and MP Blake Richards.

In other countries visiting artists are treated with the same regard as atheletes regarding permission to visit. Can you imagine the outcry if a member of a hockey team from another country was denied the opportunity to visit and contribute his/her talents to us (and for the duration of a competition) Saeid was also refused and Mohamad but appeals with the letters of support we were able to get that decision reversed for them. Saeid's visa was issued on July 12, halfway through the symposium and Mohamad on July 5...but at least they got here. Last year Gerard Oroo Montondi (gold medalist in the 2008 Beijing Sculpture Olympics) was also refused as was Chander Parkash, also an internationaly recognized artist. Big Thanks to Blake Richards and his staff for their efforts assisting us to get these artists here, without that I am pretty sure that Mohamad and Saeid would have been staying home too.

This is me, Morton. I have a blast doing this kind of thing.

Tanja's stone is the largest (about 12,000lb) It still amazes me that in a months time these stones will be incredible works of art.

We started on Tony's stone by making a cut on the bottom and one side but the second cut didn't cleave the stone right through because it wasn't very thick. Tony is drilling the ledge and will cleave it off with wedges.

We couldn't do it without volunteers, Brad Callihoo from Edmonton came down several times. He cooked meals, cleaned up the site, ran to town for things, assisted the sculptors, pretty well anything we needed to have done.....and he only has one leg. If it wasn't for the volunteers that come from all over Western Canada to help make the event a big successwe wouldn't be able to keep it open to the public. Volunteers came from as far away as Kelowna this year.

Mark Stuthiet from Red Deer was here every weekend. He has three really good attributes for being a great guy to have at the symposium: he's got super technical skills and helps keep everything running, strong like a bull and he plays guitar....we can use his skills from sun up until late into the night. Two of my sisters and brother inlaw came over one evening and did a sing song around the campfire, real western Canadian fun. The participants loved it.

Greg McMartin from Bowden and his two kids spent almost the whole month here. Greg set up in the sculpting area and did several pieces from wood. It is really nice to have locals getting involved.

Mohamad told me he had met Saeid several years ago and admired him then, now he was really happy to have a chance to work with him as a peer. They had a great time together.

Peerapong started on his stone by drilling holes and wedging off the exterior until he gets down to the rough form he wants, then he will use a grinder with diamond wheel and hammer and chisel before moving to tools that will smooth and polish.

To be able to cut on the top of Tanja's stone we had to put the old saw up on a trailer with planks under the wheels so that when the blade is down in the stone we can roll it back and make a cut the full length of her stone.

This is the cut we made, but as with Tony's stone the piece to come off was quite thin and we had to cleave twice to get it all off. You can see the wedges in the cut.

Peerapong is making headway, working all around his stone. You can see that this really is hard work, but very rewarding. It is a good feeling to make an artwork that you know will be around for much more than a thousand years. I think that helps to keep us going.

Christine did an awesome job of hanging the show in the gallery, it was beautiful. I think everyone that came out to the symposium checked out the gallery, work by local artists and the international participants was exhibited.

The quilts by the Bergen Ladies Aide were displayed above these show cases on their frames, it was a really neat exhibit and a lot of people commented on it. It is nice to showcase some of the fantastic skills of our local artisans. I hope that exhibiting non- traditional mediums like quilting will help us all to realize that there are talented people everywhere (even at home) and we should celebrate their skills and their art.

These masks by Danny Joe Jones from Bearberry were a great inclusion in the gallery.

Tony is cutting on the top of his block now, it will eventually be the front or back. Where he is cutting will be at the base so this saves a lot of back breaking work after it is stood up.

Peerapong has taken tousands of chips off his stone, now the form is begining to take shape.

Tony has the silouette of his sculpture completed and we stood it up. If it is possible it is nice to see your piece in the orientation that it will be placed in.

Now he can begin shaping the front and back surfaces as well as working the hole from both sides.

Tanja's block has a lot of stone removed, she is moving quickly. Today she recieved email about a family emergency, she will return to Germany in two days. I hope that we will be able to have her return later or in the future to complete this torso.

"Canuck" is laying down again now and Tony is working on the top surface.

Will Truchon, an Alberta sculptor, made it down a few times over the event. The day after the closing he did a piece that will go into the sculpture park along with the others. Great to have people drop in and lend a hand, without them the event just wouldn't be possible.

Steve Turner a sculptor I met in Viet Nam spent the month helping out, he assisted with running the big saws, chiseling, moving stones....what ever needed doing. Steve also does metal work, some of his folded copper forms are incredible.

Mohamad began work today, at first we thought his stone was going to challenge us but after some contemplation we realized we were just looking at it from the wrong angel. His stone will actually accomodate a sculpture a little larger than what he had planned. First thing was to make a cut on the end of his stone. He really liked the old saw, it is a work horse, I couldn't guess how many tons of stone this saw has cut over it's life. I got it in BC, it used to be a prospectors saw used for mining jade.

This is the result of Mohamad's first cut, another big piece to come off the other end will be next.

The outside of "Rising Sun" is really taking form and Peerapong has made some headway on the negative space from the top too.

Rainy today but the temperature is OK. Last year and the first we had some cold days dispite the time of year, I hope it stays nice for us this year.

Although we can turn the stones with our on-site crane it is sometimes easier to just climb up on the material.

Tony is getting the basic form onto both sides of his piece, when he has that completed he will start to create surfaces, some with texture, some polished.

Brad, volunteer from Edmonton, brought salmon, steaks and all the fixins for a delicious BBQ on Saturday. Melody and Steve from Okotoks helped out and we had a meal fit for a king. A campfire after it started getting dark finished off the evening.

Well, actually.....we sang some songs, lit sparklers and had fun with glow sticks.

This video shows the old saw in action, it is really a time saver to be able to take off pieces that wiegh several hundred pounds with each cut.

2010 Mid July

2010-08-23T15:38:00.001-07:00

Mountain View County generously granted $4000 to help host this years event, that demonstrates thier support for the arts. Reeve Al Kenemere spoke to the crowd at the opening ceremony.

During breaks we visit, share artistic inspirations and techniques.

Now with his stone standing up Peerapong starts to work on the back side.

Volunteer Christopher White eyes up a cut to be made.

Sept 12, Saeid arrived today, this is the stone he will use. We have had good luck with material in the past but when Saeid's stone got to the site and we cleaned it up there was a big crack in it we didn't see. The stone is thinner than what he had designed his sculpture for so he had to come up with a new design. A bit of a rush too as his visa was issued so late.

The new maquettte is made from clay, he can reshape the model until he likes the form and still be sure it will fit into the stone. If you use wood and cut too far you have to start again so clay is often the first step in developing a form.

Now checking the model against the stone....

To begin Saeid had to take a long strip off the top of his block, we decided the best way to do that wpuld be to drill and cleave it. So he begins drilling holes 18" deep and about 4" apart along the line he wants to cleave the stone on.

To get the best result all the holes should be alined vertically too. You can see the steel rod in the first he drilled, there is a level on the left side of it. By leaving that rod there it is easier to keep the rest of the holes gong in the same direction.

After the holes are drilled chisels are placed in each hole and then they are tightened progressively until the stone cleaves. You can see the crack working it's way down the stone in the forground.

About Sept 10 we placed a pad to move Pauls cross from last year, "The Elder". The location is beautiful for that piece, with nothing but open fields and sky behind it will look great here. Here we are drilling a hole for a column of cement that will keep the pad from tilting.

A careful check is wise before you begin making a cut as the material can't be put back once it is gone.

On Tuesday we went to the Calgary stampede. It rained all day but luckily the temperature wasn't too cold. As you can see the infield was a mess, bronc riding, barrell racing, bulldogging etc were all new, lots of pictures and videos were taken.

We toughed it out. As always the stampede was wonderful entertainment and we toughed it out throught rain wearing garbage bags to stay dry.

Tony has "Canuck" standing up now, he will begin polishing soon.

Peerapong has almost gotten through his stone, there is still a lot of work to do before he will start finishing the surfaces.

Steves parents stopped out for a couple of days. Peerapong was feeling a little chilly but as you can see the weather was mild for us. We'd have a hard time adjusting to the temperature in Thailand too, just the other end of the scale to deal with.

Mohamad played with the cats and drove the tractor for a 1/2 hour or so every day.

Mohamads goat will have a hole about in the centre of it's body. We are discussing the angle and location.

I make several plunge cuts witht the chain saw. This is an incredible tool for this kind of job, it would take a whole lot longer to do this with a drill and grinders as we would normally do. Big thanks go out to River City Developments from Red Deer for providing the chain saw. It was a big help for Peerapong too.

This is the result, after athe frets are reemoved by wedging with chisels the hole will be a long way toward being finished.

We don't always work, most evenings we spend some time talking about work, the countries around the world that everyone comes from or just walking around the acreage looking at the artworks and mixture of stuff I have that a lot of people would call junk.

Peerapong was glad to see Shirley, he met her here in 2008. That year she was here the whole month, she cooked and looked after the art gallery. Shirley is also the founder of the Atti2ude Club which she never have thought would grow into such an organization. There are members in more than 12 countries now and we are doing arts events around the world, of course Peerapong is a member. It's great to have a chance to renew friendships with people you thought you may never see again.

Saeid gives the thumbs up for another cut, the saw closer to the camera is actually just sitting there but it looked like a great photo.

This is the view that visitors get of the site, you can see the barrier rope just in front of the camera. Greg McMartin from Bowden is working on the wood piece in front, then Peerapong, then Steve chiseling on Saeid's stone, then Tanja's stone with the tent over it. Mohamad and Tony are on the right. People can also walk down the right hand side of the site and see these artists working from the front.

Here's another piece that Greg completed since the first of the month. It's great to have some local artists getting involved. Later in the month the Stone Sculptor's Guild of North America will be doing an exhibition and demonstration for a weekend, the quilts by the Bergen Ladies Aide is getting lots of comments, Danny Joe Jones and Sally Banks have some pieces in the gallery and some others too.

Ha, ha. Saeid was telling me he had never seen so many workers just coming to help, he can hardly cut fast enough to keep them working. With 12 days knocked off his time here by our consulate he could not complete this work by himself, Steve, Daorian, Brad, Pieter and Christopher are all helping him to complete his work before he leaves.

To cut on the top of Saeid's stone the saw had to be raised and blocked up. Christopher and Pieter have been heading up that work, I have been pretty busy with the chain saw for the last few days.

I have always known what Mohamad planned to make, a lot of people don't see the goat even if you tell them but from this angle I think you can see it pretty easily now.

Tony is working quickly, as he has to leave on the 28th his last day for working will be Sunday the 25th. They are going to Banff on Aug 27, the 26 will be the day we install "Canuck"

The little saw (30" dia.) cutting in on an angle will save Saeid a lot of work with a grinder, hammer and chisel.

His basic form is begining to take shape, with large pieces removed he can begin to work closer to the final surface with hand tools.

Tuesday River City Developments from Red Deer sponsored a trip to Drumheller with a tour guide for the guys (Tanja is back in Germany). Rod was great and will be the guide for next weeks trip to Banff too. River City has become a great supporter of Bergen Rocks and other artistic endeavors too. In Dec. 2010 they sponsored and hosted an ice and snow carving festival including dance performances, live music etc. called "Elements in Ice", a group I belong to organized it. The event was held on the site of their downtown development "Elements at Rivers Edge". Big thanks go out to Ken and his people at River City for their support of the arts, we look forward to future projects working with them.

Rod took them out to a buffalo ranch where they rode out on a wagon behind a tractor to feed the buffalo. This was really enjoyed, buffalo are unique to North America and their image is familiar to people around the world.

Then they went to the Last Chance Saloon for a buffalo burger, The little town of Rosedale and this hotel are at the end of a very short road (5km or so) and there are 13 bridges to cross to get there. It is in an old mining town, at the time it was worthwhile to build all those bridges to get the coal out. The mine is closed now but 1000's of tourists drive out there each summer just to cross all those bridges.

The next day it was right back at the work, Steve and Dorian are assisiting Saeid, I am cutting with the chainsaw on Peerapongs piece. It was too tight to get in there easily so I had to use one arm through one hole and the other from the hole in the back. You can see the tip of the chainsaw at the bottom on the right of the sculpture.

Even though the work is hard and there is a lot of it we still have fun throughout the day, Saeid and I joke about something as Dorian chisels on "Repression".

Pieter and Saeid discuss the next cut. This volunteer just showed up one day and asked if we could use his help. He ended up coming over for most of the day for the better part of 2 weeks and seemed to love it dispite the hard work. this is the kind of enthusiasm that makes Bergen Rocks possible, without the volunteers that help out so much in so many ways we just couldn't do it. If we could hold this in a town I'm sure there would be more helping hands in many ways, meals, at the work site, day trips etc. I think that if we keep it going some municipality or institution will see that this is a great way to hold an interesting event, attract tourists, beautify their community and create a legacy that will endure for 1000's of years into the future.

We make parallel cuts on the stone and then knock the pieces off with a chisel, these are called fret cuts. As we get closer and closer to the final surface that we want the cuts are made smaller and closer together. You can see the crosshatch cuts that Peerapong is making now, this will create a smoother surface than the larger fret cuts. The next step will likely be with grinding wheels and then moving to polishing pads impregnated with diamonds.

To make the cuts on top of "Repression" we had to raise the saw and block it up on timbers, we just have to wiegh the options of laying the stone down or moving the saw. Seemed simpler to move the saw this time.

Tony is putting finishing touches on now. Here he is creating texture on some of the surfaces by carefully chiseling. You can see that he has left a border of smooth stone at the edge. If he were to chisel too close to the edge it is almost certain that chips would break off, definition is also improved by leaving that smooth edge beside the roughened area.

Go to next post to see the conclussion of Bergen Rocks 2010

2010 finished

2010-08-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

These first six or so photos belong at the end of this page with the others of the finished sculptures. When I figure out how to get them there I will move them down. This is "Rising Sun" from one side.

And from the other.

This is a view of one of the exhibit areas in the park with "Reflection" installed in the center.

A view of "Canuck" from the front.

From the back...

And from the side.

Ancient memories was installed the day Mohamad and Saeid left for the airport.

Everyone has to take a break from time to time. Here Mohamad ponders his sculpture and his maquette (the horns were broken off in his luggage on the way over).

Peerapong has created what is sure to be an interesting feature now, nobody knows where this is going....

"Canuck" is getting finishing touches now, with the form created Tony can spend the rest of the time now taking surfaces to just how he wants them.

You can see the pieces flying off as Peerapong uses the air hammer he brought with him.

This one is out of order and I have a hard time moving these photos around so you get a sneak preview of where Peerapong is going with his finish, the stone has dramatic stripes in it...

Saeid was ready to lay his stone down so Old Blue got put to work today again, must not be running in this shot.

On Aug 24 an 25 several members of the North American Stone Sculptors Guild came3 out and set up an exhibit of members' work and also worked on some small pieces. They were set up on the lawn so we had our coffee breaks there, they had seventy five or so sculptures exhibited which was a nice treat for people that came out that weekend. Some came on Friday evening and we watched some videos in the gallery together about different sculptors we know.

The last day Tony had a chance to work we got his sculpture installed, tommorrow Rod is taking everyone to Banff. There is a stone base about 2.5 feet tall under it and mounded up with soil around that. It will really be nice next year when the grass grows in around it.

They stopped in Canmore on the way to Banff and stopped to admire this piece by Alberta artist Al Henderson. All has several sculptures placed around our province.

This is the four sculptors at the top of Sulpher Mountain with Banff townsite in the background. Tanja is still in Germany but we have word that she will return on the 28th, so she will be here for the closing ceremonies and stay a while longer to finish her torso.

Everone opted for the ride up on the gondola even though there is a walking trail to get to the top of the mountain. It is a long way back to the bottom and this shot is from about 1/2 way up.

The horns of Mohamad's goat are roughed in, I like the texture but I don't think that's what he is going for in the end. The hole still has to be opened up from the other side too.

A view from the other side.

Sometimes you're dusty....nope, sorry-he's muddy. That's why sculpture is so much fun.

My nieghbor, Ed Stacy, raises Norwegian Fjord horses and drives them behind a wagon. These horses have a dark stripe running up their mane and down their tail, some even have the stripe right down their back. They seem to be about the gentlest horses I've ever seen but that's because it is Ed that is training them I think. In addition to taking all the sculptors for wagon rides his wife Kathleen cooked a great meal and brought it over, everyone loved it.

Before we went on the ride Ed brought out one of this year's colts, that was a hit with everyone.

There is a herd of freindly cows in the field, last year they checked out Chander when he was there, maybe they thought he had come back but they figured out it was Mohamad after a few sniffs. He got a kick out of that.

Morton and Saeid discuss strategy, maybe stand it up again tommorrow to start on details in the orientation that it will be placed in after it is finished.

Steve is a trooper, with his time almost cut in half Saeid is glad to have the assistance.

Peerapong's piece is ready to install, the base has been prepared and all we need is the crane to move it now.

There it goes.

Right up over the roof of the barn!

Sometimes it takes several attempts to place a sculpture just right but "Rising Sun" droppede right down over the pin on the first try.

there wasn't enough time to install "Repression" or to complete it with the cable that will be permanent. We used some big hemp rope to simulate the steel cable for the unvieling/closing ceremony.

Although it is officially the end of the symposium Mohamad will stay a few more days, his sculpture is also very close to completed. Morton gives him a hand polishing the horns.

Each of the artists recieved a certificate recognizing their participation and a poem about art, made in brass. I wrote the poem in 2008 while I was at a symposium in Viet Nam, here it is;

No Borders

Winds blow

Waters flow

Arts grow

This is August 3, the day Mohamad leaves and we just got his installation done in time for a few pictures.

On the way to the airport Saeid picked up a cowboy hat, figured it was an excellent memento of his time here.

Mohamad thought the same, he picked up four...and three footballs. As it all wouldn't fit in his luggage he wore all four of them onto the plane.

Since she missed the wagon ride earlier in the month Ed invited us over after the others had left, Tanja thought the baby Fjord was a cutie.

She had fun driving the wagon in the field. The horse, Skokie Lodge, needed a strong hold on the riens to keep him from wandering to the side and having some grass rather than driving so at first we were kind of driving from side to side. After Ed convinced her not to let him get away with that we straightened right out.

Friday night we went to Olds for the Chuckwagon races, there were trick riders, chariots, mutton bustin and other western entertainment. She loved it.

The day we installed "Reflection" there were still a few last minute things to do, the recess in the base for the torso to sit on had to be touched up along with more polishing.

When it was time to install "Reflection" we used Old Blue to take the torso, the big crane took the base which wighs about 12,000lb I think.

When the base was placed we had to use shims to make it level, lift with the crane and put in a shim then check, add a little or take out a little. It took at least 1/2 hour to get the base perfect. (see the level on the top of the base). The Torso landed right into place on the first try, Tanja is almost lost for words. It usually takes several tries to get the level or the orientation just right.

A view of the torso from behind against the big spruce tree.

And from the front.

Now some final pictures of this years works and those that were created at Bergen Rocks 08 and 09

Mohamad Reza Yazdi- Iran

"The Ancient One" Marble-2010

Saeid Ahmadi

"Repression" (awaiting final installation)

Sandstone 2010

Peerapong Doungkaew- Thailand

Rising Sun" Marble, 2010

Tanja Roeder- Germany

"Reflection" Marble- 2010

Tony DiGuglielmo

"Canuck" Marble-2010

Until next year....

Bergen Rocks Visitor Info

2010-03-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

Dates: July 1-31 2010
Open to the Public: 1pm-5pm daily (Closed every Tuesday)
Opening ceremony: 3pm Saturday, July 3
Closing ceremony: 3pm Saturday, July 31
Tours of Sculpture park, work site and gallery/meet the artists: 7pm every Wednesday

How to get there:
From Sundre-Turn south at A&W 6.4 KM, Turn west (Pioneer Lodge Road/Twnshp Rd 32.3) 1.6 KM, Turn south (Rng Rd 5.4) .5 KM
From Calgary- Travel north of Cochrane on Hwy 22 approx 40 min, Turn west on Bergen Road (Twnshp RD 32.0) to Bergen Store, Turn north 3.2KM, Turn west (Pioneer Lodge Road/Twnshp Rd 32.2) 1.6KM, Turn south (Rng Rd 5.4) .5KM

Admission: $2 pp

On Site:
-Bergen Sculpture Park, 10 monumental stone sculptures created at Bergen
Rocks 2008 and 09.
-Art Gallery featuring works by local and international artists
-Watch sculptors at work as they create monumental sculptures from more than
100,000 LB of sandstone and marble.

Participants:
Tanja Roder - Germany
Peerapong Doungkaew - Thailand
Saeid Ahmadi Iran
Carlos Rafael Valezquez Cuba
Mohamad Yazdi Iran
Dominico Di Guglielmo Canada

June 25, the work area and the gallery are looking pretty good. Have to prep the house and still need to get six more stones, only one on location now. It is quite large and needs to be so Christopher and I took a few hours at over a few days to cleave it to the thickness he needs. A bit of fun to break up the day of moving stone, planting trees, building tools...

This stone is for Saeid, it is ready for the crane to lift the top piece off which will be the one he uses. The other will make a cool table or vertical panel. The top piece, that wieghs about 24,000 lbs, was lifted with chisels and big steel wedges.

This year we have an exhibit that we are really excited about. the Bergen Ladies Aide group makes beautiful hand stiched quilts. On Tuesday members came over to install the exhibit of four wonderful examples of this wonderful artform. They are exhibited in the loft of the barn, with spotlights on each of them it is a great way to make use of that space.

Wednesday the stones arrived, it tooka good part of the afternoon to unload them. While we were doing that Peerapong arrived and started to measure and check his stone carefully even before it was unloaded.

Sculpting began on Thursday, opening ceremonies were held Saturday afternoon with the three scuptors who are here now and a nice little crowd of arts enthusiasts. Despite having participated in at least three international arts events in Canada, freely sharing his artistic inspirations and techniques with local artists and creating public artworks that have helped to make the events successful Carlos was refused a visa to enter Canada by our consulate in Cuba. Mohamad and Saeid will both be late due to delays in having their Visas issued. In European and Asian countries artists are typically given similar considerations to atheletes when applying to participate in international events, maybe that convention will be adopted in Canada when our government recognizes the significance of the contribution these artists make to our society.

2010 Participants

2010-02-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

This year selection was very difficult, 62 proposals were submitted for only 5 positions. So many of the projects were wonderful, many excellent sculptors and excellent artworks had to be eliminated. None of those that were not selected should feel that this reflects on their art work. I really wish that we could choose more, in the future that might become reality as some communities in Alberta are interested in hosting symposia. It would thrill me to be able to aid other areas or communities in our province to host one of these events and aquire wonderful works that would remain for 1000s of years into the future.

These sculptors have been chosen to participate in Bergen Rocks 2010!

Saeid Ahmadi, Iran
Tanja Roder, Germany
Peerapong Doungkaew, Thailand
Mohamad Yazdi Iran
Domenico Antonio Di Guglielmo, Canada
Carlos Rafael Valezquez Cuba

One of the programs that I have tried to get going from the begining of Bergen Rocks is sponsorship of artists by others. This year a private collector will sponsor one of the artists that participated last year. I'm so pleased with this, maybe in the future communities or other collectors will see that sponsoring an artist in the symposium is a great way to become involved in the arts, contribute to the event and aquire a piece of art that they could witness the creation of.

Elements in Ice

2009-12-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

This summer a fellow from Red Deer, who is passionate about art, visited Bergen Rocks for the second year. He fell in love woth Bergen Rocks and Bergen Store's smoked farmer sausage. While Carlos and I were creating a sculpture for one of his projects in Red Deer he felt that an arts event would be a good way to raise some funding for another project he is involved in in Red Deer, and to give families something interesting to attend during the Christmas season. "Julietta's Place", a 10 unit transitional housing project for women and children that are victims of violence falls under the umbrella of Womens Outreach Society. We only got started on the event about 2 weeks before it was to take place so it was a real whirlwind of recruiting sponsors, setting up the site in downtown Red Deer and getting all of the equipment and materials we would need for the ice sculptures, breakdancers and native dancers that would participate. We had to harvest ice, recruit sculptors, build a stage and artists lounge where we could all warm up if it was cold (and the last day was bitter cold for the grand opening). Ken and his

crew from River City Developments worked like crazy to get everything ready and we got it done just in the nick of time. All of the artists worked really hard too, volunteers made sure we had lots to eat and we slept as fast as we could in the hotel rooms provided so we could get back to work early again each day. The site was ready about 15 minutes before the gates opened for the unvieling ceremony! That was just great! Native dancers and breakdancers put on a wonderful show despite the bitter cold and everyone that came enjoyed the sculptures after they were lit up all at once in dramatic fashion following the ceremony (cut short on account of the cold weather). Here are some pictures and videos that will give you an idea of what got done.

Victor Hernandez a Canadian from Cuba played sax at the opening. He was worried about how the cold would affect his instrument but after we reminded him that he is now Canadian and the cold is something we just deal with he got out there and wailed on his horn. WOW! what a show.

Greg McMartin's chief surrounded by mushrooms, snails and inukshuk was a crowd pleaser.

Will Truchon put up a huge inukshuk that you could see from the road, it was beautiful and let people know there was something going on at the site. The form it's standing on is 8 feet high and 10 feet across so you get an idea of how big this guy is.

It's early in the year for snow around here but we got it this year. Some of the equipment we needed was buried at the bottom of the six foot fence along the back of my place. No problem getting it out of there but first I had to find it.

The ice had a really thick rind on it this year and for most of the artists chose to leave it on and use it to create definition. This one of a thunderbird worked out really well. There were also some air bubbles in the ice which lend some interest and challenge to making everything work out too. My daughter Jessica and her friend Candice helped out with this one and they got all excited about doing some ice carving again when they get a chance, we're hoping to get more locals involved next year.

The indian face here showed up really well from just the right angle, he has sun shining on one side of his face and the other is in a shadow.....you have to imagine it because I didn't get a picture that shows how the illusion is created but still an interesting piece.

The rind really worked to bring out the buffallo.

Eagle and some native symbols-bear's paw and a shield kind of thing
Carlos from Cuba did an awesome job on these two friends, a bear and a raven.

Some tools make the ice just fly and fill your pockets with chips, here I'm using a draw knife usually used for pealing logs, it really pulls the ice off the block and leaves a nice straight and smooth line.

At night the pieces change completely, here is Carlos with his bear and raven after the sun went down. You can see what I mean about the rind on the ice, it was up to 6 inches thick on some of the blocks. You can also see the size of our blocks, not the 36" high and 20" wide ones commonly used in ice carving events. This is so unique we will be able to attract more top notch talent next year to carve "Big Ice" in Red Deer.

It took a lot of ice to create the whole on-site scene and a full day to harvest it. You can't tell but this is Morton, Carlos and Ryan. When we realized we were a little short of helpers Ken got Ryan, a neighbors son, over to help us. He ran the loader while Carlos cut the blocks and I rigged the equipment to pull the ice out. The channel into the lake is about 50 yards long.

Ken was pretty worried about Carlos having an incident with the cold water at the pond. He made us promise to keep him away from the edges and wear the full size life jacket all the time. Here's Carlos with the floater jacket on and as promised well away from the edge.....actually in the very centre of one of the blocks. Well, you just can't keep big kids from playing when there is ice and water involved.

A dance troop from Red Deer came out and did some high energy break dancing for the crowd followed by wonderful native children doing traditional dances. I didn't get any video or photos of them as my camera batteries had frozen up and my fingers were too cold to put new ones in by then, but suffice to say it was awesome. The last dance they took partners from the crowd to participate in the "Owl Dance" then the lights went on the sculptures and people mingled around the site enjoying the artworks for a little while despite the biting cold.

Ken was wanting to do some sculpting all weekend but was just too busy getting things ready on the site. When he got his chance he said to heck with a shovel or chisel, (bless his heart)....I'm going to shape this big block of snow in a hurry. It didn't work out to be the piece he started out to make but he did get a form to develop that we later went to work on and made the face of Old Man Time. Greg McMartin from Bowden got that going just before the construction guys were going to haul the pile away......

See you next year at "Elements in Ice" Red Deer, Alberta

Bergen Rocks Videos

2009-10-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09 Videos

I'm sure it would be pretty easy to put together about 3 hours of video, I have a pile. There is only so much you can get from pictures though so to get the real experience you'll have to come out to the event next year, here are a few videos of different things that went on during the event, you can see it is a lot of hard work and fun too. We create our own ceremonies, emulating the places where these events are celebrated by the commuinities they are held in......these are a good demonstration that this really is a grass roots symposium, we're doing it on our own. We feel that we are making headway though, we had two volunteers from Sundre this year and one from Bergen, in the future we expect that more and more local people will get involved. We donated 30% of the admission fees to local organizations to help demonstrate that art can be beneficial to everyone where art happens.

About 5 days into it we had a flag raising ceremony, as each flag went up we sang the national anthem just like they do in other countries where symposiums are held. Two people showed up just after we started, that made our little ceremony a public event! Here's Paul....

This is an overall shot of the work area when everyone is working, it is exciting and a little noisy. Paul is uing a finger chisel, creating texture on the face of his cross, Chander is firing his bells, Chien is grinding, Gerard is polishing and Carlos is just starting back to work after changing a worn out diamond blade on his grinder.

This short clip is Chien cutting frets. After the slices are cut he will remove the frets with a chisel and hammer or a power chisel. As you get closer and closer to the final surface the size of the frets is made smaller and smaller so that a big piece doesn't come off where you didn't want them to.

Here is Chien removing the frets he cut. When working farther from the surface of the finished piece larger frets are cut and removed with hammer and chisel or a larger power chisel. Even though we aren't purists (using only traditional tools) the work that is realized in only one month is incredible.

Chien uses a large bushing hammer to flatten a surface on "Spring" This may also serve as the texture on some of the piece while other areas are polished. The bushing tool erases the small cut marks left after cutting frets.

Chander is helping Paul to cleave a large piece from his stone that will free up the underside of one of the arms of the cross. First, holes are drilled along the line and then chisels are put in and tightened progressively to apply even pressure. When they get really tight we wait a few minutes to let the energy travel through the stone then tighten agian. The whole process takes several minutes to an hour depending on the thickness of the stone etc. Listening to the energy travel and watching carefully that it is going where it should are parts of the process that take up some time and make it interesting. Here are the last few seconds before a stone wieghing over a ton is removed.

Carlos has the form now and is working the surface with a diamond cup wheel on a grinder, eventually he will work down to polishing pads and water......step by step.

Well, we had to include a shot of Old Blue in action. It chugs and bangs along but gets a lot of work done for us. This may be the oldest relic in use at a symposium anywhere. Bergen Rocks is the only grass roots international sculpture symposium in the world, that makes adapting to what we have to work with nessecary. We move a lot of stone with pulleys, rolling pieces on logs or posts etc. It is more time consuming than at larger events where all kinds of equipment is provided but gives us a challenge and the comraderie that develops as we help each other achieve our work is a big part of what makes this symposium unique.

Carlos is cutting frets on "Prelude". Although it is about 30 degrees today we have to dress up pretty good because stone dust draws the moisture out of your hair (hat, toque), the machines are loud (ear protection) the stone dust should not be breathed (respirator) and there is water flying everywhere (rubber suit and boots). No complaints from the sculptors though, the satisfaction of creating a piece of art that will be enjoyed long after we are gone is exciting enough to make all this worthwhile. The work is as hard as any job in the oil patch but we do it eagerly and the result is always considered well worth the effort.

Biesiker volunteer Mark Stuthiet gives directions to the crane as "Prelude" is guided onto it's base. Several people were out for the whole month of the event to get involved. Stephen Turner (Calgary), Robyn Webster (Calgary) and Mark were here throughout the event. Other volunteers from as far as Kelowna and Vernon put in several days, some local people offered help when they dropped in to see what was going on, inertia is building.....maybe the fun they have will inspire some to explore sculpting for themselves. The symposium offers the opportunity to learn the techniques used, it is inspiring to see peoples interest and their enthusiasm when they realize that they could also do this kind of art themselves.

On our way back from the airport one evening we stopped at the studio of Will Hamm near Cremona. Will makes stringed instruments (awesome stringed instruments) and plays them too. Here he is playing on a (?) I think it is basically an Irish guitar. We really enjoy seeing and experiencing the work of other artists, our own sing songs around the fire at night include instruments such as hammers, bottles, saw blades etc.....what ever makes a noise, and we have so much fun. These people are really creative and it is so interesting an fun to see what they will come up with next.

After the sculptures were installed we spent a couple of hours enjoying them, taking pictures with the group there etc. Here my daughter Jessica and Chander decide to get a look at the park from the top of "Gates to Heaven". What a pile of fun, the realization that the work is done is kind of sad and it seems like a rush to get as much enjoyment from the sculptures as possible before the artists have to leave them here for ever.....too heavy for checked luggage and they would get confiscated in your carry on.

Just having fun.

As I said.......Christine brought out a drum, Gerard picked it up and started a beat. Everyone there grabbed what was handy and joined in, eventually lyrics. Sing songs around the camp fire or these kinds of things that might break out at any time during the work day are a pile of fun, we are hoping that in the future more and more neighbors and other local people will visit the sympoium and experience a little of this kind of thing and add there own individual contribution. We could have a hundred people in on it, banging rocks together, sticks, whistling, knee slapping.........This little session went on for about 10 minutes but here is a short taste of it.

Aug 19

2009-08-21T10:07:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09

Saturday night after supper we had a chance to get pictures of all of us with the sculptures, last chance for that as Paul is leaving at 7:30am tommorrow. This is Carlos' piece, "Prelude".
"Desire To Be", Gerard Motondi. All people desire to be something which they are not, some in society will look up to leaders and desire to have what they have achieved while some who have achieved in leadership or business will look at those that lead simpler lives and covet their lifestyle.........we all desire something other than what we have or are.

Paul realized another incredible Celtic cross. So many people who came out over the last year and marveled at the cross will have another to appreciate with the new cross at the park. This one is slightly taller than "Ancient Cultures" from last year, as large as manhy of the High Crosses in Ireland.

Chander's sculpture is a temple. He says that in India there are 100's of these temples, that even a small town may have several of them. In the morning people go there to pray and pur water on the bells, they are nondenominational, Budhists, Hindus and Christians are all welcome to pray there. The title conveys this mutual respect idea perfectly, "Gates to Heaven, Anybody can go"

It was so much fun and amazing things happened in the creation of "Gates to Heaven, Anybody can go". The sculpture changed dramatically, many challenges and coincidences presented themselves that influenced the result. Chander had already carved one bell which wieghs approx 300lbs when he decided to switch to welded steel bells. Lots of other neat stuff that wasn't planned was incorporated in the final piece, this temple was a piece that evolved as it was being created.

"Spring" is such a serene and beautiful sculpture, especially with the artist meditating on top of it after being placed. The form of a young lady ready to bloom like a flower in the spring, in white and blue marble. The base is the shape of Viet Nam and the sculpture is placed right where Hanoi is. I see a message in this creative base although Chien never mentioned it. Viet Nam is also a flower that is ready to bloom. It is a beautiful country with such warm hearted people, tourism is increasing yearly.

Monday, Aug 17 Gerard left for Kenya, he will only have 2 weeks at home before going to Korea for another symposium there. Everyone that is still here went down to see him off.

Aug 15

2009-08-21T10:03:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09....Aug 15

It is closing day, yesterday was a rainy and cold one so instead of the laundry hanging on the fence it is all over the house, looks like we can expect nice weather today. That's great, last year was cold and rainy on closing day. Our county reeve, Al Kenmere, attended the closing ceremony along with the councilor for our area Kathy Blaine. Both said flattering things about the symposium and the resulting artworks. It is great to have this local support. Over 7% of the attendants this year were from our nearest town, Sundre! We hope to see that number increase in the future as well as attracting even more people from outside of our area. The City of Calgary named all the participants Honorary Citizens of Calgary, Calgary Tourism performed a white hat ceremony, Travel Alberta gave gifts, Up Towne Olds sponsored a reception......several communities in our area (Western Canada) are interested in holding a symposium of their own. This is really exciting for us, this kind of interest and recognition satisfies several of our objectives and confirms to us there is potential for the program to expand beyond Bergen. It is actually a few years earlier than we projected for this kind of enthusiasm to develop.........art is a powerful commodity.

Chander Parkash sposke on behalf of the sculptors at the closing, expressing that the stone was good, the working atmosphere a pile of fun.........that this year's symposium was a big success from the point of view of the artists.

Carlos rang the bell (a stone splitting wedge) to officialy close the event. (Big whoo hoo here)

Everyone had fun "exploring" their work and others. My daughter Jessica and Chander his sculpture and gave a celebratory wave. This sculpture is a temple, similar to 1000's across India. People go each morning to pray and pour water over the bells. I don't think they are devoted to a particular religion, regardless of your faith you can pray here. The title " Gates to Heaven, Anybody Can Go" is perfect, in itself a wonderful message.

We asked attendees to pay $2 admission, this was split several ways. The participants each recieved a share of 30% of the total and local organizations recieved an equal amount. This will help the artists with their travel expenses and help the event to provide benefit to our community. There are so many good causes to contribute to it was difficult to choose, we decided that we'd go with these:

Bergen Community Association; the event is in Bergen and this group is involved in contributing to the community in many ways.

Sundre Paddlers; We scheduled a raft trip on the Red Deer River three times, each time the weather wasn't cooperative. The Sundre Paddlers were going to host this trip. It is always a challenge to maintain and replace equipment etc, over the years many many people have learned to enjoy the river safely through this club. Sundre boasts a long list of competative paddlers who have had success' provincially, nationaly and internationally and were introduced to the sport through this club.

Sundre Pioneer Museum; Sundre has a first class museum, it is a focal point for the energies of many local residents. The museum is something that should be accessable to the public, funding to allow for that is constantly an issue.

Sundre Community Van; The Sundre van came out several times with groups of seniors and shutins. We really enjoyed having them come, the sculptors took time to meet and speak with them. This is a great service to have in our community and we look forward to seeing them on site again next year.

Orphanage in India; That the participants came from around the globe for such a short period of time demonstrates that we live in a global community now. In some of the countries where our guests came from challenges in the day to day lives of some people are insurmountable. Although it isn't such a large amount, the money that we sent with Chander to donate to an orphanage in India will likely make more of a difference than the other four shares above combined.

The remaining 40% will help us to hold another symposium in our region in the future.

Aug 14

2009-08-21T10:00:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09....Aug 14, Installation day

Paul's cross was the first piece to be loaded from the site, it is a cold and rainy day but the work has to get done. We're hoping for bettter weather tommorrow.

The cross was stood on the grass first then picked straight up and placed over the locating pin in the base.

The weather got worse as the day went on, "Prelude" is hoisted onto the trailer. Kind of cool to see these huge sculptures flying through the air........that's what iron workers call it when they hoist beams etc.

"Spring" and "Prelude" were loaded on the trailer at the same time. When a sculpture is placed it is pretty common to adjust the orientation more than a couple of times before the final OK. Sometimes we get it right the first time and then still move it at least a couple of times to be sure there isn't a better angle for it to face etc. Chien has a look at "Spring" from every angle before we move on to installing "Prelude"

I think this is the first picture of "Gates to Heaven, Anybody Can Go". Although one of the straps is still on a column the lintle was finally in place. After the bells are installed and the pad is covered with sod this sculpture will appear to be a 1000 years old already......coool!

We did a lot of just running around taking pictures after the installations were finished. This old saw did a pile of work this year. As soon as we get slowed down and organized a little I will start work on building another one for next year. Since we use eratics rather than quarried stone there is a lot of prep work to do on the stones that isn't required if the material arrives cut to spec.

Aug 13

2009-08-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09
Aug 13

The local Legion is installing a memorial at the Sundre cemetery, the stone they have isn't quite the dimensions they need so they stopped by this morning to have it trimmed up. Steve Turner helped out with that a lot, it is really busy on site with everyone finishing up some detail or other. A couple of the sculptures were placed today, in some cases they need to have them in place to ponder the orientation..............

To be sure that the location pins glued into the pad will slide right up into the bottom of the columns the receiving holes have to be drilled perfectly straight. Chander watches that the bit is going in parallel to a line scribed on the side while I watch that it stays straight left to right as we drill the hole.

Paul is texturing the feather that runs all the way up his cross, it is the first in the work area so we will move it first in the morning. The big crane that is coming can't get past it without moving it.

We set Chander's columns on the pad to be sure they would sit plumb and mark the pad for the position of the locating pins. Chander is drilling the hole for the righthand column. Both columns will be in place and ready for the big crane to set the lintel on tommorrow morning.

We also placed Stephen Yettaw's sculpture today, this sandstone cutoff is the base.

After setting the columns Chander cut the tops so that the lintel would sit perfectly on top. Most of the guys worked until 10 or 11 tonite. The realization that there is only one working day left is keeping everyone at their work.

It drizzled all evening as well, the forecast for tomorrow looks bleak too. Guess we'll light the woodstove in the house (we had to dig up the propane line for the furnace to pour Chander's pad) and the one in the barn again tomorrow. It is really nice to slip into the gallery and warm up around the wood stove.

Final check with bar to verify that the tops of the columns are on the same plane, it is completely dark now and pretty chilly. The crane comes at 8am for the installations.

Aug 13

2009-08-13T07:33:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09
Aug 13

On Tuesday we placed all of the bases, this one is Gerard's for "Desire to Be". Volunteer from Bearberry, and artist, Danny Joe Jones was there most of the afternoon and helped out with chains and blocking etc that makes this kind of work a 3 man job with Old Blue.
On Wednesday Desire to be was the first sculpture to be placed on it's base. Gerard will spend time on Thursday working on small details for the final installation.

Paul, Gerard and Mark Stutiet, Bieseker sculptor, discuss what will be done to match the base and the sculpture for the final installation. A few options are available, Gerard decided to sleep on it and make a decision Thursday morning.

We also placed Chien's base on Wednesday. Thursday Mark, Steven Turner and I used about 3 cu meters of soil to create an artistic element to the base which Chien designed. No picture right now but it is really beautiful and interesting. I can't wait to see "Spring" installed.....and all of the others.

There have been several pictures of the big drills, saw etc. Details are done with chisel and hammer, and specialized tools like this one. A straight air powered die grinder with a carbide burr. Many shapes of burrs are used to make recesses or to shape some of the outside edges etc. Really, what ever works is the rule of thumb for working stone. We build our own chisels on site , I'll try to gather some up and get a picture of them today.

At the end of the day we sat on the deck with the heater on. It was a little chilly for this time of year, hoping for nice weather again tommorrow.

Aug 10

2009-08-11T07:41:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09

Grass roots symposium

Chien takes his turn cooking breakfast.

Bergen roots is a grassroots (created and produced by the artists themselves) event. Without the volunteers and sponsors neccesary to provide things like prepared breakfasts, laundry service, internet access etc. the sculptors are kicking in their help where needed. It has worked out great as everyone is taking turns making breakfast and even lunches and suppers some days. We are being treated to international quisine and having a lot of fun, sometimes there are dirty dishes in the sink and crumbs on the table when everybody gets to work after a meal but we get everything in order somehow before we sit down again.

Their love for art, the opportunity to work with sculptors from other countries, to promote art and arts events and to become familiar with other cultures are strong motivators for the participants. Bergen Rocks has become a unique way for us to achieve those things together. Visitors are coming from long distances to experience the creation of these sculptures, yesterday a couple who came up from Gem (near Brooks) made the day trip because they had read about it in a Calgary newspaper. Another couple told us that they decided to travel to Alberta this summer from San Diego because they wanted to see Bergen Rocks along with other Alberta attractions. They had a couple of other destinations in mind but neither one of them had a sculpture symposium going on......

All of the artists are great cooks! This is an egg dish that Chander prepared for supper last evening, first he boils the eggs then peels and fries them. Over rice and seasoned to taste with chili sauce it is delicious. We have been treated to other ethnic dishes from Ireland, Kenya, Viet Nam and Cuba.

Cleaning your work area is an important task though mundane. Here Chien is removing rubble from his work site, although the sculpture is on it's side it helps to "see" your work if keep your work area neat and tidy. We try to keep ahead of the need for the artists to do this work themselves but they make these chips so fast it is tough to do. Something to work toward in future events will be to provide a little more on site assistance for these kinds of jobs, allowing the artists to stay focused on their work when they get into the "creative zone"......everyone looks to be on schedule to complete on Thursday as planned and install the sculptures on Friday.

Monday morning a group of seniors came out from Red Deer. They enjoyed the tour that we give to groups when we are able. The artists took the time to meet and speak with them. We've had community buses come out from Red Deer, Olds, Didsbury and Sundre. The site is set up so that they can drive the bus right onto the work site so that people who aren't able to get out can see the sculpting action up close. Lots of great comments, we love having them come out. They enjoy seeing the work in progress, the gallery and the sculpture park. This group stayed about an hour, they were very nice people.

I am around this kind of thing quite a lot now and sometimes forget that many people in our area have never seen stones being sculpted. Although it is smaller than many other symposiums a similar atmosphere is created when the work starts, many visitors will stay for an hour watching as we prepare the big saw for a cut and then watch as the 3 foot diamond blade slices down into the stone. Mean while other artists may be turning their stones by hand or with the crane, drilling and cleaving, cutting and chiseling frets, grinding or polishing. It's great to see people come out and spend a couple of hours watching as the slow process of forming a stone into an artwork progresses.

Putting videos on takes a lot longer than still pictures so I haven't done any so far. Yesterday every artist was working and I happened to be on the site, so I took a video of the work and decided to make a point of getting it on here today. I think it is universal that people enjoy watching as these stones are slowly shaped into the beautiful forms that will remain in our area for thousands of years into the future.

Paul is chiseling to the surface of his cross while volunteer from Calgary, Steve Turner, uses a bushing tool to texture the feather lower down. Chander is creating patina on his bells using heat and water, the heat creates blues and yellows and greens, water rusts the steel. Chien is working with an angle grinder creating a surface on the back of "Spring". Gerard is polishing "Desire To Be" with a diamond impregnated disc and water for lubrication. Although I didn't catch Carlos in action he is also cutting with an angle grinder.

Auyg 8

2009-08-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09, Aug 8

Today was another busy day, the guys were busy working on their sculptures or bases and Mark and I got things lined up to pour concrete for Chander and Paul. The weather was nice and there was a pretty good turn out of visitors. A lot of people from Calgary, Didsbury, Red Deer, Olds.......we are really pleased that they have the interest to travel here to experience the symposium.

Only two of the bases will require concrete this year so we rented a small mixer, volunteers Mark Stuthiet (Beiseker) and I did the heavy work, Brad Callihoo (Edmonton) was in charge of the water. After losing his left leg in a motorcycle accident in 04 he has learned to assume management positions on our projects.

This stone weighs about 6000 lbs, it will be the base for Chien's piece, "Spring". With such a big footprint it won't need concrete under it. The ground is very firm, probably hasn't been disturbed for 30 years or more. After placing his sculpture the base stone will be covered with soil and laid over with sod.
Just goofing around! Chien almost fell off just before I took this picture, those 4" stainless steel hoops make nice rails for the bridge onto the lawn where last year's sculptures are installed.

I remembered that Peerapong found my big down filled parka cozy last year so I dug it out for Chien, we all sat around the picnic table until about 11 enjoying the evening. Lightning to the south had Chander a little concerned after the storm last Sunday night. I don't think we'll see another one like that for years to come.

Aug 7

2009-08-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09, Aug 7

Art Show

Christine has been a trooper, along with cooking meals and washing clothes and everything else that needs to be done she is the curator of the art show. Our rule of thumb is that if an artist is interedsted enough to inquire and bring some work over we'd be glad to exhibit it. The barn becomes a beautiful exhibition space with Christine's inovations. Behind the curtain is an old car in the process of restoration. It's surprising how this space can transform for this month, it'll be back to a workshop a few days after the symposium is over.

On site in an old rustic barn we have an art show that adds another interesting thing for folks to see when they come out. Paul, Gerard, Chander and Carlos brought small pieces with them to exhibit or offer for sale. These works are Gerard's, made from Kisii Stone. He lives in the village of Kisii, it is well known for this particular soapstone. It has viens of many colors running through it, cuts and polishes well.

Another view in the art show, the tall wood sculpture in the centre is one of Carlos' works. Several local artists are also exhibiting work, paintings, pottery, woodwork, silver and goldsmithing........lots of interesting original work.

A mask by Bearberry artist Danny Joe Jones looks great along with a painting by Bill Holder of Longview and Kokopeli lamp by Christine Pinder. About half of the work is by locals from Edmonton to Kelowna. Barbra Bell from the art museum and gallery in Bearberry has several pieces in the show too. It's great to have them share their work with us and everyone that attends.

More works by local artists, mache bowls decorated in a native theme by Karen and Rae Schzutalz of Nanton are beautiful. Painting on slate and an interesting assemblage by Leslie Huber of Bergen add some Canadian images.

Carlos brought a sculpture of Don Quixote, it is intricatly carved, about 2 feet high and 2 feet long and made from mahogany.

More small sculptures by Gerard and some folded copper and silver forms by Stephen Turner. In the background is a graphite sketch by Robin Brierley of Claresholm.

Vantigham's Backhoe Service from Olds provided a machine Friday after noon to do the groundwork nessecary to pour the bases for some of the sculptures. Three will use stone bases, they don't need concrete under them as they have a pretty big footprint. Looks like we will pour the bases on Monday, that will give the concrete 4 days to cure. The Celtic cross and the temple will set a lot of wieght on a small area, the concrete will be reinforced with metal.

The stone Gerard is using for "Desire To Be" is too large for the backhoe or Old Blue to move, so he is surfacing the bottom of it near the house where it sits now. When the big crane comes we'll place it first and while the other sculptures are being installed he will prepare the top surface.

While we were placing some of the base stone Chander took a break. We made it through the big storm earlier this week, it is really nice to see the sun and blue sky though.

Stephen Turner from Calgary has spent a couple of weeks here. He is a sculptore and metalsmith, here he is working on a folded copper form. He's also been a big help on site when we need to get stuff done.

Chander applies patina to his bells, they will be beautifully rusted within a couple of days.

Chander's bells after being welded, decorative designs cut out of and some welded to them and being treated to create patina. There are a couple of extras too, one in stone that weighs about 500lb which will hang in the trees somewhere.

Paul is taking a pretty big slice off the back of his cross to prepare it for the feather, and all in small chunks!!

Aug 6

2009-07-29T07:58:00.001-07:00

Bergen Rocks 09, Aug 6

Traditional celebrations were held in India on Aug 5, for the first time Chander missed the event. I tied two strings on his wrist, one for each of his sisters who usually perform this ritual.

On Wednesday evening a local couple came out for the tour of the site and gallery. We all had a really nice time. They enjoyed having a little more information about some of the art works in the gallery, the tools we use to shape the stone and the chance to talk to the artists. Next Wed evening there will be another tour from 7-8, everyone is welcome.

It warmed up on Thursday afternoon but in the morning it was chilly. It must be a big shock for Chander, Gerard and Chien to work here coming from such hot climates. When Chander was in New Delhi on his way here the temperature was 46 C. He thinks it is very cold here now, -40 is another story all together.

Luc Bouchard a volunteer from Calgary (and sculptor) has been here the last few days assisting Paul. That was a good opportunity to start work on the stone that will be the base. Our on site crane is invaluable for handling medium size stones. It is affectionately called Old Blue, I don't know if that's because of the paint job or something else

After getting the stone on the ground Paul cut frets in the lump that had to come off of the bottom side of the base. It had finally warmed up and he decided to forgo the rain gear we often wear when cutting "wet". Boys like to play in the mud.

Chien's sculpture, "Spring" has been rolled over as he is working the sides. Now that the form on the front is laid out he will shape the sides and back before starting to polish.

Bergen Rocks 09, Aug 5On the evening of Aug 3 a terrific storm began about 1am. This was a storm like many people who live in our area have never seen before, the lightning was so constant that it was like daylight for about 15 minutes. The hail and wind was incredible, the radio reported that there was extensive damage along a 150km strip from Red Deer to Airdrie. This van is covered with leaves knocked off of poplar trees about 100 yards away. The site is a mini disaster area in itself, tents are toppled, one is even in the creek beside the site.

The storm took out power poles and lines around the area, on Monday morning there was no power and likely that it would be a few hours before it is restored. We boiled water for coffee in a Kelly Kettle, using wood for the heat. Cooked breakfast on the BBQ. It was chilly so we were all dressed a little bit heavier than we should need at the begining of August.

It seemed like it was a little to cold to work and since the power was off, after breakfast we loaded into a couple of vehicles and headed for Drumheller. We usually take Tuesdays off but I'm sure anyone coming to the site will understand that we can't work until the power is restored. A volunteer from Calgary stayed behind to let people that do come out know what is happening today. Over the weekend volunteers from Edmonton, Biesieker, Calgary were on hand to help out. We couldn't do it without them. I'm really pleased that we can hold the symposium in Bergen and create some benefit for the local area by attracting visitors here.

Royal Tyrell Museum is incredible!! Volunteers split up at the museum and stuck with one of the sculptors so they could wander about where ever they liked,. that worked out well. After the museum we had lunch and went on to the little saloon in Wayne. That pretty much filled up our day, two hours drive back home.

I think I mentioned that the volunteers are awesome. Robin Webster from Calgary washes clothes in the outdoor facility. In order to create another bedroom the washer and drier are moved out of the house during the symposium. The guys are cooking thier own breakfast, washing thier own clothes and taking turns helping to clean up the kitchen after meals. This is certainly unusual for an event that is usually sponsored by the government of a country, province or city in other countries. Bergen Rocks certainly is a grass roots event, everyone chips in and we get to do our art.

It's not only the volunteers that are pitching in, after coffee time in the barn we help to clean up before getting back to work. As we have only one cook we really try to help out where we can, and the sculptors are helping each other moving the big saw and their stones etc. This certainly makes our event unique.

My neighbor, Ed Stacey came over in the afternoon with "Bergen Sven" and one of his wagons. Ed has about fifteen of these beautiful horses (Norwegion Fjords). Chien got a thrill out of driving the wagon, it was still cold out today and no break in the weather that we can see. After warming up in the barn after the wagon ride it was back to work on the stone. The wood stove in the barn is great for warming up on chilly days like this, really it is nessecary. When you get chilled to the bone there is nothing like the heat from a roaring wood stove to warm you back up again.

Bergen Rocks 09,Aug 2

On Aug 1 & 2 Stephen Yettaw, sculptor from Edmonton, brought out his stone cutting chain saw and created a sculpture over the two days as well as letting all the guys try the machine and making a few cuts on Carlos' piece.

This is the sculpture Stephen did, it is solid granite. The chainsaw is a great tool, the negative space in the centre was made quickly, it would be a big job with other tools.

Stephen cut the space between the two figures for Carlos. This was a big time saver for him, it will let him start shaping the torsos of "Prelude" about a day sooner.

Chien finished working on the front of "Spring", we rolled it onto it's side and made a cut along the back, then rolled it another 1/2 turn and cut again from the other side.

As one of the sculptures is going on the lawn near where the Pink Chalet has sat for a couple of years it had to go. We picked it up with the crane and moved it out into the corner of the parking lot, the end of an era........

"Desire to be" is more polished every day. Gerard ground it as smooth as he could then started sanding starting with 40 grit and moving up to 200. He will graduate to finer and finer sanding paper up to about 1500 or more. It will shine like glass at that point.

Extra volunteers showed up on Friday and we had a chance to get the things done aound the site that have been hanging over our heads. Here we pick up a big log to use for the signs showing the distances to where the sculptors came from.

And here it is, the sculptors will have traveled more than 115,000km to be here and make their art for us. Kenya is the distance winner at 14,195 km one way!

Chander will use 7 iron bells rather than the stone ones he had in mind before he started. He cut designs into them with a gas cutting torch, it is going to a beautiful piece, and include an element of sound!!

Bergen Rocks 09 July 30

At the reception last night in Olds Carlos met some spanish speaking people Richmond and Roser Godfry, they invited him to spend the night with them to visit the family. They live quite near to Bergen, they arrived bright and early the next day and will be back to visit some more through the next two weeks.

Mark returned to the site today and cut some material for Chander, Here chander is shaping some of it carefully.

As you work closer to the finished surface fret cuts get smaller and closer together, eventually grinding and then sanding will create a mirrror smooth finish.

Gerard has his form and has ground most of it smooth. Now he is moving to polishing. Pads impregnated with diamond are used with water for lubrication. Starting at a grit of 50 then 100 etc until he reaches 1500 or maybe even finer........the coloration in Gerard's stone is awesome, with a high polish it will be a stunning sculpture.

When the weather is cloudy we can remove the tents. Chien is standing on his sculpture checking that his perspective from the ground is not distorted. It is important to check and recheck many times, especially when the piece is oriented differently from how it will stand when complete.

Paul has pretty much finished with this surface. The stone has been laying in this orientation for two and a half weeks now. Today we will turn it so that he can start to work on the back. The surfaces on the sides are done and textured.

Dave Casselman from Olds TV was on site interviewing Carlos. He is doing a half hour piece on each of the sculptors this year. Last year he made a one hour show, you can see that at http://www.casselmanscanada.com/ Dave's shows are about people and things in western Canada that are interesting, check out some of the other episodes he has done on local attractions.
At the end of the day we cleaned up and drove to Bearberry for a BBQ at local artists' Dany Joe and Carole Jones. The western decor of their home is interesting, unique to North

America. Chander and Chien found a way to settle disagreements in the future........hmmm,

Bergen Rocks July29

We started the morning off by putting a new blade on the big saw. The first cut was made with it on one of Chander's columns, it cuts really fast and as it is heavier than the old one we had to replace the rocks in the counterweight bucket with steel, steel is almost 3 times as heavy as stone. As the saw moves down in the cut the weight on the blade increases and will bog the motor out so a little weight is added to the bucket as the cut is made. We are using old railroad spikes found along the tracks, it's just about right to take out two at a time. This evening Uptowne Olds business organization and Prairies 2 Peaks Tourism Association sponsored a gala reception at Centenial Park in this town 50 km east of the sculpture site. A representative from Calgary Tourism attended and performed a "White Hat Ceremony". After reciting a pledge to spread western hospitality where ever they go and giving a big western whoop each sculptor was presented with their own white cowboy hat. They also recieved certificates bestowing them with honorary citizenship of the City of Calgary. Representatives from Mountainview County, Travel Alberta, Olds mayor and council along with about 50 arts supporters from the community. The sculptors thouroughly enjoyed the evening and enjoyed visiting with people who came. Dave Casselman was on location making footage for the Casselman's Canada episodes that are being produced. He produced an hour long documentary in 08, this year he is doing a half hour show about each of the sculptors. Thanks so much Dave, these will be treasured mementos for the sculptors and great that they are be available at http://www.casselmanscanada.com/ CDs of these episodes are available at the symposium and on Dave's website if you would like to collect them. There was time for a little fun too, Chander Chien and Gerard gave skateboarding a try. It all ended with the young fellow that owned the board calling a stop to the melee and giving them a lesson. Chander and Chien got along pretty well pushing each other on the board while the other sat on it cross legged.
Along with the reception an art show was organized under a tent in the park. We brought along some of everyones work, a sculptor from Bowden brought in a few of his pieces (8 ft tall) too. Paul is the only cowboy I've seen in a skirt, I asked him "What does a cowboy wear under his kilt?" and his reply was "His cowboy boots" We sure had a nice time, it was so nice for the representatives of Olds, Calgary and other communities in the area to organize the reception giving the public a chance to meet and talk to the sculptors. The recognition from Calgary and the surrounding towns is wonderful, our guest book is filled with visitors from Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary. This demonstrates that this event, and art generally, can and does create economic benefit to the community and surrounding area. As a relatively unknown type of event only two years ago the concept is gaining awareness quickly, support and attendance is growing every day. That's super, helping us to achieve our objectives for the symposium:
1. To allow sculptors to make the acquaintance of other participating artists.
2. Sharing of cultural norms, provide the public of the surrounding area an opportunity to become familiar with the tendencies of modern sculpture.
3. To promote the participating sculptors and the strengthening of international relations.
4. To demonstrate the community and economic development opportunities that art provides.

July 28, Bergen Rocks 09 We took a break on Tues, 28th and made a trip to Banff. The weather was not great but when we rode up to the top of Sulpher Mountain it opened up for about 15 minutes. The view was great and the ride up in the cable car was a thrill.

We visited Banff Springs Hotel, it is an incredible building in an awesome location. Although it was cool all day we had a great time, visited several galleries and of course picked up "Canadian" items to take home.

"Spring", Chiens piece is taking on a recognizable form. There is a large slab to cut off after it is rolled over, and a lot of cutting and polishing to do over the next two weeks. We're half way there now.

A delegation from an Alberta city spent a couple of hours at the site on Monday. They were impressed and excited about the symposium and feel that thier town would benefit from having an event themselves. We are excited that this event may foster others, besides having a great time we are achieving other stated goals--to stimulate other symposia and to place art in other communities is a result we have aimed for from the start. Groups from a few other towns and a college in Alberta will visit before the end of Bergen Rocks, it would be wonderful if there will be a couple of other sympposia next year along with Bergen Rocks.

The sculptors often take a break when there are several people on the site. Gerard is explaining his work and showing pictures of others he has done in other countries. Last year one of Gerard's sculptures won the gold medal in the Bejing Olympics sculpture competition which included artists from many other countries of the world. The other participants have equally impressive credentials. It still amazes me that we have artists of this calibre visiting Bergen, and many others that would love to come in the future.

Chander is ready to cleave an end off of one of his columns after cutting with the big saw. The blade is almost worn out completely now, another is ordered and we are hoping it will be ready soon.

The owner of the local GM dealer is a strong supporter of the arts, he allowed us to put this banner up during the symposium. As local support grows the word about Bergen Rocks will spread. Apparently this is the only grass roots symposium in the world, where the artists get together on thier own. Big thanks to Ed Morgan and Sundre Motors for the letting us hang our banner there.

The weather has been really nice, a little too hot for this hard work. When we take breaks it is often in the barn where the art show is installed. Chien and volunteer, Jayda Pinder from Chestemere, have a sip of lemonade. The barn is nice and cool and it is wonderful to relax for a few minutes there and enjoy the art work too.

Gerard has worked both sides of "Desire to be". On july 27 we stood it up, more shaping and a lot of polishing remains to be done.

2009-07-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

"Bergen Rocks 09" July 18

Go to Bergen Rocks post below for map and times

Atti2ude Club member Alejo Lozano from Columbia helps to prepare the site and place the stones. This is Carlos stone, a lot larger than it looks, about 6 tonnes.

Finally everyone is here, (left to right) Chander, Chien, Carlos, Gerard, Paul and Mark Stuthiet. Mark is an Alberta sculptor who I worked with on the Canadian team at "Fete d'hiver" a few years back. The sculptors came in over 5 days, we made a trip to Calgary on Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues and Wed to get them all. Each one started on his stone the day after getting here. I had plans for the days leading up to the start so things are a little behind on the site but I think it will all be pulled together by the opening ceremony on Saturday.

Carlos thinks the weather in Alberta is perfect for sculpting, well in the summer it often is. We have encountered some issues with Carlos stone, something that happens at symposiums and creates a need to adapt, be creative and flexible. If it was a commission you would simply get another stone, at a symposium that isn't usually nessecary except in the case of catastrophic material failure. It is fun and interesting, and challenging to create a pleasing form from "your stone" Chander wrote to me a few days before he left India to send him a picture of his, he said "I miss my stone" There is a kind of bond that grows between the sculptor and the material, stone, wood and snow often have internal defects that make it nessecary to modify your work. This is exciting, it is as if the material is dictating the final form, that you are working together with it. Often it leads to something interesting that you did not think of doing.

After cleaving a large piece from the top of his stone (wedges are inserted into the drill holes and tightened until the stone "cleaves") Chien is cutting "frets" to be chiseled off . Due to the wedge shape of the piece to be removed the smaller end didn't come off with the bulk of the cleaved block.

Paul is grinding a connecting line between the drill holes to be sure that when he cleaves the stone the cut will be as straight as possible.

Gerard always looks a little whiter at the end of the day, seems like the guy lives on that marble dust.

As this is a small symposium we don't have extra helpers on hand to help out the guys all of the time. Here Chien and Carlos work together with the big saw. This really creates a bond between the sculptors, having contributed a little to everyones work is satisfying and creates memories that will last forever for us.

Chander is cuts the form of one of the bells for his project with the angle grinder. He is working on several elements of his sculpture at the same time.....two columns, a header and two bells.

Stephen Turner, Atti2ude Club volunteer, helps Chander with cleaving the block he will use for the two columns. Each piece weighs approximately 6000 lb.

Chiens model sits near his work area, sculptors refer to a model or sketch regularly to avoid making a cut where it is not wanted (oooops).

After making cuts with the big saw many chisels are inseted and tightened progressively tow "cleave" off large pieces.

On the 20th we stopped in the afternoon and raised the flags. Everyone helped with each one, this is the Viet Nam flag going up, Chien in front in a classic Vietnamese pose. After the flags went up the participants each sang their national anthem. The site looks great with the flags of five countries flying over our work.

Tues July 21

We went into Calgary on our first Tuesday off. There is a nice group of sandstone sculptures along the bank of the Bow near the Greyhound station. They are really hard to park and get to, you have to cross a couple of streets where there aren't any crosswalks....The 14 street bridge is in the background.
Our trip had two purposes, to tool up and see some art around the city. This sculpture of Nelly McClung and other women from the womens rights movement is along Stephen Ave Mall.

The last stop was the Calgary tower. Too bad it was cloudy, we couldn't see the mountains but it was a great view of the city. We spent about 1/2 hour up there, Carlos didn't trust the glass floor.

Rhonda Barber took time to give us a great tour of the Triange Gallery at City Hall. Part of an kinetic installation by sculptor Katie Ohe is shown in front of us.

July 22

Everyone got a lot of work done today, including me. I was so busy I forgot about taking pictures until Paul had decided to shut down and clean up for tommorrow. The pressure washer does a quick job of that.

Carlos has taken a lot of material from back of his sculpture today and on Monday, now the form is begining to show. He has a long way to go and the stone is very hard but we are only slightly over a week into it now. Incredible what can result over only a month, I hope more people get out to see these art works develop.

Now that the top surface is roughed in Chien is working on the sides. He made a saw cut and cleaved the top half off and now he's drilling and will cleave off the bottom. This process will be repeated on the other side, you can just barely see the sawcut on the other side.
We had to move one of the stones Chander cleaved off on Monday to let him work between the two. Improvisation is nessecary when you don't have exactly what is needed for equipment. First we lifted the stone and put rollers under it. Then we placed a chive under the front of the crane and ran a chain through that to the hook. By pulling up witht he crane we could pull the stone forward.

The form of "Desire to be" is developing very fast. The cuts that Gerard makes are getting smaller and smaller now as he is working toward surfaces he will detail or polish.

Bergen Rocks 09

2009-04-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

"Bergen Rocks 09"

July 15 post (scroll down for older posts)

Thanks to all of our sponsors, your contributions demonstrate your support of the arts and your understanding of the community and economic development opportunities art creates:

Olds TV (oldstv.com)
ICS Diamond Tools
Sculptors Association of Alberta
Prairies2Peaks Tourism Association
Atti2ude Club
Universal Granite and Marble
Uptowne Olds
Evergreen Carvings in Jade
Genesis Land Development Corp.
Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Bergen Rocks will take place July 15 - Aug 15. Five sculptors from around the globe will each create a monumental sculpture in stone over the month. More than 100,000 lb of stone will be used, the public is welcome to visit the site daily to watch these artworks being created. (Open 1-5, closed Tues, $2 addmission) The life span of the sculptures should be 2000 years or more. An onsite art show and the opportunity to view the 5 sculptures created last year are other interesting things to do at the symposium. It's very interesting to watch as tons of stone are shaped by cutting, wedging, drilling and chiseling.

Participants
The organising committee received 43 proposals from artists in 17 countries. It was very difficult to choose, it was so much easier last year when I drew the names from a hat. Thank you to all of the sculptors that submitted an application, we would like to be able to choose all of them.
Carlos Rafael Velazquez -Cuba

Chander Parkash - India Gerard Oroo Motondi - Kenya

Paul Patrick Haggins - Ireland

Pham Minh Chien Viet Nam

The Stones
BC marble and Alberta sandstone will be used this year. The marble is beautiful material ranging from nearly pure white to grey, many pieces are streaked with nearly blue lines. The quarry for this marble is in a remote area of BC up a small logging road. The stone is not sawn, it was almost a full day to scout out which boulders to take. Our sandstone in Alberta is very good quality, next week it will come for Paul and Chander's sculptures. All of the sculptures should have a life span of 2000 or so years. There are many sandstone sculptures created around the time of Christ that are still in good condition.

Loading stone at the quarry in BC., the site is nearly on the top of a mountain! It was impossible to get a truck with trailer into the quarry so each boulder had to be loaded onto the bed of the crane truck and shuttled down the mountain where they could be loaded onto a trailer to be trucked here. Iane Dobson (red shirt) and Deb Wilson (Evergreen Carvings in Jade) helped out in a huge way with the marble. It is amazing how people,from across Canada and around the world, pitch in to make this event possible. Iane spent the whole day helping to load the stone, Deb came up to the quarry (2.5 hr drive) to scout out the stones, then went up with the owner of the crane company another day and again for the full day of loading. I still think its incredible what can be accomplished with a network like the Atti2ude Club, members from across the country and around the globe selflessly offer to assist in any way they can. Events such as Bergen Rocks take place in many other countries, club members are involved in the organization of many of them.

Call for artists-Art in the Park On the day of the closing ceremonies (Sat, Aug 15) we are going to have an art in the park event. Artists will set up under gazebos and umbrellas for the afternoon. This will give lots of artists a chance to participate and help out a local group, entrance fees will be donated. Covered spaces (6' X8') $25 Open spaces (what ever you need) $10. Contact us now to register. decker1@telus.net

Click here for Bergen Rocks 08 blog http://mortonsculpting.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-08-26T12%3A36%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=50 start at the bottom of the page and work your way up

Videos, Saigon Symposium

2008-12-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

Tam, from Benda Nui Sam took Stephen and I on a boat trip to the Cham Village across the river from Chau Doc. They have beautiful materials there, this Cham girl was making some on a kick loom (I think that is what it is called).

This is one of the street side restaurants. Phuong, Tram, Quang (Tram's father) and I stopped there for a bite to eat about midnight one night. The service is just incredible everywhere in VN, even in the stores you get assistance the minute you walk in the door. Not like at home where you can holler and whistle and just about set the place on fire in a lot of stores and not have any luck attracting a staff member.

There was a band at the restaurant that I went to with Thanh and his wife. Her mother and father and brother also came. Anyway the band was playing this crazy VN music that I just love, I've never heard anyone play a guitar like that, they get sounds out of them that just don't seem natural coming from a six string.

It was hard to choose one from the 5 or 6 videos that I took at Onh's house. The kids were having a ball, singing, dancing or just running around. The "snow" in the bowls was a big deal that night. I don't know if there would be so much excitment for the real thing, it never really gets too cool over there.

I've mentioned that the traffic is pretty interesting. We would have constant grid lock if we had to move as much traffic on our streets as they do in VN. There is a system and it is very efficient. Watch this a couple of times and watch as the bikes and cars just move across and between each other. They move like a school of fish or a flock of birds. I only saw one accident in the 6 weeks that I was there this fall.

I think this is a great video even though you won't be able to understand a word of it. The interest that these students exhibit in listening to Hung shows that they are keen to understand the art. Everyday there were groups of these university students coming through the gallery, it is really refreshing to see. I am reassured that the public does appreciate art, even at home, because there is very little difference between people where ever they live.

Siagon Sculpture Symposium

2008-12-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

Remember to start at the bottom of each blog page to see it in chronological order!!

When I got home there was lots of snow and the weather hovering around a chilly -30. Kind of a shock after 90-100 degree weather in HCMC for the last 3 weeks but it really is beautiful and we do know how to cope with it. Glad to be home but already thinking about travels next year and of course starting to plan for Bergen Rocks. Russia starts in mid Aug so I guess that will move the Bergen event ahead a couple of weeks. Hope we can get something going in a community somewhere, sometime but in the meantime it is a pile of fun doing it out on my acreage. I had to go home some time, bummer. On Dec 9 my plane to Hong Kong flew out at 6am so I had to be at the airport for 4. Hung met me there and after I checked in we had about an hour to do our last visiting and try to make some last minute plans for projects we have planned for the future. I think we are going to see a bunch of Vietnames sculptures showing up on a ship this summer for a nice exhibit in my sculpture park. I think there might be enough to create exhibits in a couple of other places too. Maybe somewhere in Olds and Carstairs for example. Would be a good way to create some tourism in our area.....working on that now. Sorry to have to leave VN, it is such a beautiful country, warm weather, friendly people and, I don't know if I mentioned, the food is awesome.

Two of the organizers from the 2005 symposium came to meet us for breakfast. I was really glad to see them. Mr Hui (I think, so many names and I don't always keep acurate notes) and Miss My. It is so nice that these people make such an effort to show hospitality. That is a standard in the VN culture and a quality of the people there that makes me love that country so much.
Simply titled "Eagle" I hoped that there would be some recognition for the fact that in VN and in Canada we have many similar things that are important to our cultures. Same goes for the buffalo. To project that a little further maybe people will realize that we not only have animals that are similar and important in our cultures but actually the people too. We are all in this together.

These are the two pieces I made at Nui Sam in 2005. The buffalo is titled "Spirit of Navarre". Before I left for the symposium my great friend Buck (Navarre) Massey told me that he wanted me to make him a buffalo sometime, he used buffalo in many of his artworks. Ironicly when I got there I decided to change my sculpture from a water buffalo to a North American buffalo....and then news came that Buck passed away while I was working on this piece. So naturally this one was for him, happy hunting Buck.

A good friend of Stephens passed away recently, they had made a pact that when one of them "went" the other would take his ashes and spread them around the world. At the park Stephen put some of his buddies ashes on his (Stephen's) sculpture and after a short time of reflection scooped them into his hand and blew them into the wind.

About six of the sculptures were placed in Chau Doc, I put this one by Liem in as it shows the scale of the sculptures. I was happy to see Liem in HCMC during my visit this fall, on New Years eve 2006 I was in HCMC and walking to meet with Paul and Janet Haggins to ring in 2006. Ha ha, I ran into Liem on my way, he was headed to meet friends too. Pretty neat to meet someone you know walking down the street on the other side of the world and in a city of 8 million people.

Well, maybe I do have some favorites. This one is by Hori Yasushi from Japan. He worked near my site at the symposium, I was blown away with it.....and still am.

Carol Turner from Oregon did two sculptures in 2005, this one has such a peaceful face. I just loved it and the other one she did there too. Ironic that a sculptor from Oregon, Jim Gion, attended the opening and after we talked for a while realized that Carol is a freind of both of us. I worked with her in Penza this year also. Maybe we'll be fortunate enough to have her visit Alberta sometime and do a piece for us there.

This one by Luong Van Thanh in yellow marble is pretty cool I think. There were 68 sculptures created at the symposium. I took pictures of all of them but can't put them all on the blog so I just picked a few at random. My choice doesn't reflect any preference, they are all awesome I think.

Stephen Turner and I took a trip to Chau Doc, where we participated in a symposium in 2005. We got there late, it was dark. I decided to try and take some pictures of the sculptures in the park that was created there. I really like the way they turned out, the flash highlighted the sculptures nicely and the background in black. This sculpture was created by Onh whose home and family I visited during this trip. It is called "Cow Race", a tradition in a community in northern VN. He lives outside of HCMC about 30km or so, it's great to have friends to visit when traveling to different countries.

Another sculpture, white marble, in Thanh's sculpture park.

Thanh and wife in front of the studio and a sculpture in his park.

I believe it was the day before visiting Onh that I spent the afternoon visiting Thanh and his family. Here his wife and youngest daughter. We visited the new sculpture park that he is developing and then of course off to a restaraunt and an awesome meal. His wife's parents and brother joined us at the restaraunt.

Had to include a traffic shot. There are more and more cars in HCMC but still lots of bikes. It looks jammed but really this traffic is moving along pretty good. It would be grid lock in Canada if we tried to move the volume of traffic that they do using our system. There the traffic moves like a school of fish or a flock of birds, next year I will create an installation sculpture on this topic. Pretty excited about that, sounds like it might be in Vung Tao about May.

I can't stop taking pictures of the food, boy do we have a boring menu at home. Everthing is absolutely fresh and delicious, this is kind of the appetizers the night I was at Onh's. New dishes kept coming out all night long.

This is Onh, his wife and two daughters. Behind us is a model of a new sculpture he is working on. The finished sculpture will be about 640 ft tall!!! I think that's about the hieght of the Calgary tower.

I think it was December 4th that I visited Onh and his family, I know I'm repeating myself but we had an incredible meal and a great visit. Some neighbors and kids came over too so there were about 15 of us all together. The kids have bowls, they had scraped some styrofoam into "snow" and were having a blast throwing it up into the air, lots of giggling and laughing.

Another evening and again at an outdoor restaraunt, this one specialized in seafood. Man, I could live on that stuff. The snails were really pretty (on the left) all covered with spots, it was all delicious.

One evening Phuong, Quang, Tram and I stopped at a roadside restaraunt about 1am and had a snack. The food is always delicious and I think just beautiful too. At this place they bring a small BBQ to your table and cook the food right there.

Everytime I go to HCMC I go to visit Pham Van Hang, and each time I try to get a photo of his home that will do it justice. Never have been successful but I think this is the best one I have so far. It is a work of art in itself, the surface made from broken tile is obvious, check out the hand carved railing around the balcony.

I think this was the night of the exhibit opening. Afterwards we gathered at this restaraunt, had an awesome meal and, of course, lots of toasting.

At one dinner we had I gave some of the guys yellow safety glasses. These are great for sculpting white marble as they let you see the contours of plain white material. That's why they work so well for snow too. From left to right: Thanh (sitting) Minh, Chien, me and Hung. Choi's sculpture, and at risk of being wrong I will give my interpretation. To me it is a comparison/demonstration of forms made by nature and by man. The glass element is an interesting object. The glass is layered about 1/4 inch increments. I spent quite a bit of time looking through/into it. Sometimes we just don't see things that can be interesting until we take the time to look little deeper.

Hung let me take over when it came around to my pieces. Ice, Wood and Fire attracted a lot of interest. I'm really pleased that this one attracts the attention that it does, I was quite sure that it was something good when we made it, (collaborative work with Shirley Paradis and Tracie Ward during an art festival called Ice, Wood and Fire.....). After this exhibition it will be collected by the Penza Museum of Fine Art in Russia.

Professor El Ferol has a degree in archeology, many of his works reflect that background. This is representations of two bones, one from glass the other in porcelain. Exhibited in an archival fashion as if in a museum. Glass boxes, and laid gently on cotton.

One of Minhs pieces. I won't attempt an interpretation, for me just an interesting/curious form. Totally different when you walk around behind it. Awesome!

You might have noticed that I have signiatures all over my hat. I have been making a project of that for a few years now, each trip a new hat. They get hung up in my house when I come home and make great reminders for me. Here art students are adding their "John Henrys". Hung is giving them a talk about some of the sculptures in the exhibit.

Here's the side view.

Another of Nam's sculptures, titled "Rain". From the side you can see why, the lady is laying up against the man. Obviously they got caught out in the rain, maybe on their way home. It is light colored granite. Nam is head of sculpture department at HCMC Univerisity of Architecture.

Throughout the exhibition I was at the gallery quite a bit, kind of a central meeting place for us and office services, good cafe etc. Seems that there was always some art students there and at least one of the sculptors to talk to visitors to the show. This group of students from the Fine Art University wanted to take pictures of me with them and my sculpture, it was a gas talking to them about their work and mine and stuff such as what the fishing is like in Viet Nam.Strips, by On. I won't attempt an interperatation. To me just interesting forms that "live" or change as you walk around and view the sculpture from different angles. Pretty cool.

One of Nam's, from black granite. You can't see it in this photo but there is a hand on each side sqeezing the face into a contorted form. I think it is addressing the pressures that we all face in these modern and better (?) times.

Another of Hung's pieces, I won't explain how it is formed. You can see quite clearly what is there. I think it is beautiful.

One of Hung's sculptures. This one is obviously about today's technology. Five stones represent five continents, there are cell phones buried in the stones in the centre and joined by many wires, some bent like radio waves or electric signals of some kind. I made a call on my cell as he was taking the picture.

HUYNH PHUONG DONG doing Paul's portrait. It takes him 3 or four minutes to do one of these. Paul really gets the looks truckin around VN with his kilts on. But I think there is a lot more acceptance for things that are a little different there than there is at home. I don't mind wearing a sarong, they are comfortable, offer protection from the sun and a little breeze gets in there. Don't think that woud go over at home, there'd be a lot of snickering and rumors started. We really could learn a lot from other cultures. I can see that in comparison to places in Europe and Asia, that I have been to, the attitude at home is "if it don't conform to our ideas then we aint interested, don't want no part of it."

This is a front on view. The man at the bottom, woman standing on his shoulders and a baby in her belly. Gold foil on the hat represents sunshine and I applied the gold to the baby too because babies are the sunshine of families. Well, that's my interpretation.
I used a mirror for the base of my sculpture "The Heart of Viet Nam". I think it provided something interesting, from a distance it was not noticable but when you walked up to it and looked down in the mirror the piece doubled in size.

It's been said so many times that everyone likes art. Even these toddlers are having a great time at the reception exploring elements of the sculptures they find interesting. Most sculptors are pleased when children express interest in their works, including me. Indicates there is a generation of art enthusiasts coming up.

These girls were the reception party at the door for the opening night. Like I mentioned, they seem to think of ways to really make these things seem special. Well, I guess they are special events over there, working on that at home.

One of the other spaces at the gallery we used for our exhibition. In the forground is Bui Hai Son's sculpture (Sorry, don't know the title). In the back on the left is Hung's and on the right one of mine.

Another of Phuong's, this one made of acrylic and using light as an element. I really can't pick a favorite, all the scultures were good.

This sculpture, "Herd" is by Phuong, another friend from past visits to VN. I loved this piece made from black granite.

This sculpture by Minh, a friend for several years and very active guy in the Fine Arts Association.The sculpture in the forground in the picture below is also his.

This is a shot of one room in the exhibit, there were three all together. A lot of fun and some hard work was involved on the installation, some of the stone sculptures were really heavy and lots of little details to attend to. All at the same time the walls were being painted, electrical services moved into place etc. Paul Haggins from Ireland came over to see us all and so did Stephen Turner from Calgary. It was really nice of them to come and support us and the event, Stephen and I traveled to Chau Doc for two days to see how the sculptures we created there in 2005 and the park they've finished since looks. I am always impressed at how formal these things are in other countries, this picture is taken at the press conference. I didn't notice until I got home that the banner in the back is actually just for the press conference. A huge box of roses on the table and all. I hope to move toward nice stuff like that as the symposium in Bergen develops, right now it is grass roots and maybe we can fancy it up a little if we get some support in the future. Until then I don't think anyone is disappointed with what we did, participants realized it is a grass roots event, that there were very few people involved in organizing it.

On the 28th an activity that is a new twist, I think, for symposiums was the sculpture conference. It was a full day program, Choi, Noell and I presented papers. Several artist from Viet Nam made presentations, it was awesome. This is something that should be part of every symposium I think, what a great idea! When I think about it I realize that symposiums on dentistry are basically conferences, same for engineering and all others. Sculpture symposiums are basically working events, it was great to share ideas in a more formal setting, it was very informative and interesting. Look for us to have a seminar in the program for Bergen Rocks 2009. I think another good idea to incorporate is to invite the public to attend. Mr HUYNH PHUONG DONG sketched portraits of many people during the opening and at the conference. He is a very well known painter and it is really an awesome memento to have my own portrait drawn by him. I will frame it and hang it prominently in my house.

We got our flowers, cut the ribbon and then the opening reception ensued for about 3 hours, a very nice time.

31st was dispersion day but I don't think anyone left. I was staying on until the 9th of December, Choi and Noell were interested in stone and tools etc so it was a few more days before any one left. I think we got together most days for supper, after a couple of days I took up other friends on offers to visit their homes and families.......even though I was there a total of 2 weeks I just didn't have enough time to do everything I would have liked to.

29th we all traveled to the Saigon Tourist sculpture park, wow again!! I would guess there are about 50 sculptures there, many by artists that I know. We met up with some of the artists that have work there, it was really nice to spend the morning walking in the park and discussing our inspirations techniques, materials and lots of other things. In the afternoon we went to the studio for an hour or so and then off to a nearby restaurant for the remainder of the day. Great food and great company.

On the 30th we went fairly early to Pham Van Hang's. Soon after arriving a veritable feast showed up, I just can't get enough of that Vietnamese food. Basically, a great time again and then in the mid afternoon the group headed out to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Art. What a cool symposium this was. Each of the 5 days activities relating to art were planned for us, we always had someone making sure that we weren't getting lost or getting late. As usual I had a super time and couldn't begin to mention all the great stuff that we were treated to, this is only a sample, really!!!!

I came a little earlier than the others as I had a few things I wanted to do before the symposium started on the 25th, I got there on the 21st. Installation was 26th and 27, a press conference in the afternoon of the 26th and the opening ceremony was at 6pm, 27th.
The opening ceremony was beautiful as usual at these events, after several speachs we were all called to the front, introduced and presented with a boquet of flowers, pins and othere mementos. Then for about 3 or 4 hours there was an open house at the gallery, the place was packed and there must have been a thousand pictures taken. I met lots of nice people and saw many more that I know from my previous 3 trips to Viet Nam. Some came down from Hanoi, others from Chau Doc and points between. How nice that was!!!

After spending the first three weeks of November at home (in Canada) I returned to Viet Nam for the Saigon Sculpture Symposium. This is an annual event sponsored by the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association. This year was the first that foreign sculptors were invited, of the eleven that showed sculptures at the Association's Gallery near downtown HCMC 3 of us were from other countries. Noell El Farol Professor of art at University of the Philippine who I have worked with before, it was great to see him again here. The other Professor Choi OK-Yeung...Wow, in addition to his work at Kangneung National University Choi has an art park in Korea that is out of this world, I sure hope I get a chance to see it some day. Just the pictures that he showed are incredible, it would be like being in a dream land to visit there I think.

Start here and work your way up

Links

2008-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

A television crew came out during the symposium in Bergen and made a documentary about it, you can see it by clicking on the link below. Thanks to Dave Casselman for choosing our event to make an episode of his show and thanks for watching it.
http://casselmanscanada.com/vidi/view/20/bergen-international-sculpture-symposium-pt-1/
There are 3 parts, just click on next part at the end of each one.

There were two photographers from Moscow at the symposium in Russia throughout the event. The have done up a great site http://flickr.com/photos/sympopenza/ check it out, it is great!

Randy Fiedler from Red Deer advocate spent a day at Bergen Rocks, he posted a video on their web site. http://websearch.cs.com/gw/boomframe.jsp?query=morton+burke&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3De42a930b8710a89f%26clickedItemRank%3D7%26userQuery%3Dmorton%2Bburke%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.albertalocalnews.com%252Frockymountainoutlook%252Fvideo%252FForeign_artists_turning_boulders_into_innovative_art_1.html%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DGWYTop%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.albertalocalnews.com%2Frockymountainoutlook%2Fvideo%2FForeign_artists_turning_boulders_into_innovative_art_1.html
Holy! that's a long one, well click here to view it, or copy and paste it into the address line of your internet explorer. Thanks goes out to Randy for his support of the arts.

http://www.sculpturespenza2008.blogspot.com/ The official blog of the Penza Symposium. Some good pics e.g. the night Bieta and Vincent got married in the hot tub.

http://vimeo.com/4151514 This one is a slide and video show that one of the sculptors put together.

Here's a list of some sculptors I've worked with and their web sites. Have a look,

Adamec Emil, Czech Republic, http://www.emil-adamec.com/
Ahmadi Said, Iran, www.kargah.com/saeid_ahmady/about
Ali Al Mahmeed, Bahrain, http://www.hendgallery.com/
Altnurme Toomas, Estonia, http://www.art-altnurme.com/
Bong Soo Kim, Korea, www.blog.naver.com/thoma77
Burke Morton, Canada, http://mortonsculpting.blogspot.com/
Daga Franco, Italy, http://www.francodagascultore.it/
De Bernardo Marcia, Brazil, http://www.pirabrasil.com.br/
Di Guglielmo Domenico, Canada, http://www.dadg.ca/
Dzhabraylov Vasyl, Romania, www.artmajeur.com/vasyl
Dusavitskaya Valentina, Russia, http://www.dvalentina.blogspot.com/
El Farol Noell, Philippines, http://www.noellelfarol.mulpiply.com/
Falcioni Jean-Paul, Switzerland, http://www.jpfalcioni.com/
Hernandez Valeriano, Spain, www.telefonica.net/web2/valerianohernandez
Karaly Ahmed, Egypt, http://www.ahmedkaraly.net/
Kayapinar Ayhan, Turkey, www.akdeniz.edu.tr/akduss/management.htm
Lauwers Thierry, Belgium, http://www.thierry-lauwers.net/
Immonen Risto, Finland, http://www.ristoimmonen.net/
Manevich Ludmila, Russia, http://www.lman.narod.ru/
Manevich Roman, Germany, http://www.rman.narod.ru/
Maurin Tomas, Slovenia, http://www.t-maurin.com/
O’Donnell (Wyban) Dana, USA, www.stonesoulstudio.com/dana.htm
Paucker Susi, Germany, www.susipaucker.com
Pueblo Mervy, Philippines, http://www.mpueblo.multiply.com/
Perron Maurizio, Italy, www.skultura.com
Roder Tanja, Germany, http://www.roeder-art.de/
Rostas Beata, Hungary, http://www.rostasbeapiros.com/
Rossner Christoph, Germany, http://www.christoph-rossner.de/
Senoner Vincenz,Italy, www.unika.org/SenonerVinzenz
Shortiss Bertha, Switzerland, www.shortiss.com
Sonville Paty , Belgium, http://www.patysonville.com/
Takada Satoru, Japan, http://sub.khcc.gov.tw/metal/satoru_e.html
Tkachenko Gleb, Russia, www.gleboss.blogspot.com
Tkachenko Yury, Russia, http://www.yurytkachenko.net/
Turner Carole, USA, http://www.turnerstudio.com/
Valenza Michele, Italy, http://www.valenzascultore.it/
Yotov Nikolay, Bulgaria, http://www.nikyota.com/
Zambriska-Sliwa Barbara, Poland, http://www.spacegallery.com.pl/
Ms. Tina Frederickson, Sweden http://www.feson.se/
Ms. Francoises Kurtz, France
Mr. Peerapoong Doung Kaew, Thailand www.finearts.cmu.ac.th/chrongyoth/download/peerapongartwork.rar
Mr. Yeon Tak Chang, Korea
Ms. Bertha Shortiss, Switzerland http://www.shortiss.com/
Mr. Chong Fah Cheong, Singapore http://www.fahcheong.com/
Mr. Chris Peterson, Holland http://www.bastarto.com/
Mr. Emil Adamec, Hong Kong http://www.emil.adamec.com/
Mr. Kees Bunken, Holland http://www.keesbunkens.nl/
Mr. Alois Lang, Austria
Mr. Won Lee, China http://www.wonleeart.com/
Mr. Yuri Tkachenko, Russia http://www.yurytkachenko.net/
Mr. Valery Kuznetsov, Russia
Ms. Deborah Wilson, Canada http://www.deborahwilson.bc.ca/
Ms. Marian Reim, Canada
Ms. Pat Galbraith, Canada
Mr. Jock Hildebrand, Canada http://www.jockhildebrand.com/
Mr. Delayne Corbett, Canada www.sculptin.deviantart.com/gallery
Mr. Stephen Turner, Canada
Mr. Alan Gallet, Ireland
Mr. Paul Haggins, Ireland http://www.celticstonecarvings.com/
Ms. Geraldine Greedon, Ireland
Mr. John Weidman, USA http://www.weidmanjohnm.com/ , http://www.andresinstitute.org/
Mr. Ken Barnes USA, http://www.abekabstudio.blogspot.com/
Ms. Carol Turner, USA http://www.turnerstudio.com/
Mr. Hori Yasushi, Japan
Ms. Masami Aihara, Japan
Mr. Saturu Takada, Japan www.sub.khcc.gov.tw/metal/satoru_e.html
Hoang Tuong Minh, http://www.saigonsculpture.com/
Phan Thi Gia Huong, Vietnam
Nguyen Quan, Vietnam
Bui Hai Son, Vietnam http://www.saigonsculpture.com/
Ca Le Thang, Vietnam
Pham Muoi, Vietnam
Pham Van Hang, Viet Nam http://www.phamvanhang.com/
Nguyen Quoc Thang, Vietnam
Tran Thanh Nam, Vietnam http://www.saigonsculpture.com/
Nguyen Tan Cuong, Vietnam
Vihn Do, Vietnam
Nguyen Thanh Thi, Vietnam
Pham Quang Ngoc, Vietnam
Pham Minh Chien, Vietnam
Phan Phuong, Vietnam http://www.saigonsculpture.com/
Dang Thi Khue, Vietnam
Tran Thanh Phong, Vietnam
Tran Van Tram, Vietnam
Tran Viet Hung, http://www.saigonsculpture.com
Truong Dinh Que, Vietnam
Pham Van Hang, Vietnam
Nguyen Hoang Anh, Vietnam
Le Lang Bien, Vietnam
Duong Dinh Chien, Vietnam
Nguyen Hong Duong, Vietnam
Nguyen Than, Vietnam
Ngo Liem, Vietnam
Le Thi Hien, Vietnam
Dinh Cong Dat, Vietnam
Dao Minh Tri, Vietnam
Hoa Bich Dao, Vietnam
Hua Van Chien, Vietnam
Tran Thanh Tung, Vietnam
Luong Van Thanh, Vietnam
Nguyen Oanh, Vietnam
Ritchie Valthius, Canada

2008-10-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Hello Micheal, here are some shots of the event at St. Jean-Port Joli. What a great time we had there too. Vahe Tokmajyan was the team captian and Mark Stuthiet and I filled in the rest of the team. The event was four days I think so the trip was about 6. Our blocks were 4 meters high and 3 in diameter I think. We did a piece titled "The Three Graces". All of the sculptures were beautiful and the last night was really "cool". The carving stopped at 12 noon on Sunday and 5pm the others, except Saturday. Teams were allowed to start at 8am on Saturday and work right through the night until noon Sunday, and most did. That was a blast....and beautiful with the spotlights shining on the sculptures and the public all around the sight. Start at the bottom for a kind of chronological progression.

This is the Cubans sculpture, it was great! A group of people dancing in a circle. It really conveyed the feeling of the whole event for me.

Just after noon on Sunday and the quitting bell rang we took pictures.

Some of the details are going on and the negatives spaces between the masks and figures is starting to go in.

The site was crowded with artists and visitors throughout the whole event. St. Jean-Port Joli is a town of 2500 and the attendance was over 15,000!!! Wow, art can create great things, even for small towns.

This is out of sequence too, likely the morning of day 3.

This is the end of three days, the next day is 28hrs long, we should be able to finish it just the way we planned in that time.

Each night there was a get together in the artists lounge with a band etc. First we showered and ate at a restaurant. Many made special meals for us, in fact some of them were closed for the season but opened during Fete Dvir. Hospitality was great, the food and the social events. We visited a sugar maple farm and toured the town which is full of art. They have five international events throughout each year here.

Back to the begining but this is a shot of our block and some of the others near it.

The Cubans kept at it too, we had breaks for snowball fights etc but it was mostly work as there is only a short time to complete the sculptures.

It sure does get cold along that St. Lawerence but doing art keeps your blood pumping pretty good so with warm clothes we were OK

This is likely late on day two, two days left and some of the tricky stuff left to do but the form is there.

By the morning of day two we were moving into the block, maybe this was later on day 1. Not sure.

The first day was particularly cold, I felt sorry for the Cubans that were our neighbors. They hung in there and worked through every day.

After we marked the block out it was time to do some power digging to be able to work on the masks and figures.

This is our block, they were drawn by lots, some had different qualities than others.....well that's just the way they did it.