Bocce or Lithobolos (Bocce with stone balls)

After working all day with stones the guys like to wind down by playing with stones.

John Dibona, Matt Driscol, Matt Harvey, Kevin Carmen, Sean Smyth,and Royce Kelly battled it off again last night playing on a ever changing, creatively improvised bocce court which meanders around and through some favourite dry stone landmarks here in Gualala California 

In the game of lithobos sometimes it's hard to tell the stones that are in play from the stones that are just watching.

Even though we're still just messing around with stone, much like we do through the day, steel toed boots are not mandatory here. As you can see, bare feet and flip-flops are the footwear of choice 

A fitting place to sit

Mark Ricard and John DiBona make sure the granite seating slabs go into place properly. There is lots of fitting still to be done. Measuring, scribing, re-lifting, dressing, repositioning, levelling, and shifting the slabs back together before it all looks right

The result looks predictably stunning. A garden bench supported by a radiating spectrum of soldier stones flanked by basalt boulders. A vertical keyboard of earthy coloured mica quartzite coaxed into a curve so that people can sit and face one another to converse.

A place to sit and enjoy the ferns and mighty redwoods.

An installation worthy of the fine reputation the Gualala Art Center has established over the 50 years it has been in operation here in the community.

A Twelve Ton Composition

We are still making beautiful music here at the Gualala Art Centre. This monochromatic photo shows me practicing doing a monochromatic scale on upright stones which form the base part of a long cadenza bench. 

Mark and I have been keying in bars of mica quartzite in a vertical staccato pattern before the second movement begins, which involves finely tuned academy black granite slabs (fabricated by John DiBona) being lowered into place as people watch from the picnic area. 

Seating will be limited for this performance which we expect to put on tomorrow around noon.

Thanks to Kat Gleason for the musical inspiration