All Eyes On The Potato Arch

I have to thank Sunny Wieler for sending me pics yesterday of one of the potato arches we built during the children's event at the dry stone festival in Amherst last month. 

He cleverly titled the email - 'photatoes'.

He has a great camera and a good eye for potatoes doesn't he ? 

You are quite right in assuming that it is not an easy thing to build arches with potatoes. Toothpicks were not allowed, nor were any of the potatoes cut or shaped. There really is no trick. You just need patience, lots of kids and the pressure of a crowd of parents watching. 

Secret Walls

There is a trend amongst a growing number of wallers in North America where they submit to not having their dry stonework and artistic creations photographed, and are voluntarily restrained from having anyone see or enjoy images of their client's projects posted on the internet.  

I have always maintained that dry stone walling needs to be promoted in Canada and the best way to do that is give examples of good workmanship a high profile. The first wave of wallers in Canada came across the craft  (and got better at it) partly through seeing the excellent work of wallers in Canada, and others from around the world, posted on the internet on flickr and Facebook and blogs (like this one). 

These younger wallers shouldn't give in to clients insisting that their work not be available for others to look at. People need to be inspired and allowing art to be cloaked and muzzled is giving in to a unpleasant client-serving censorship.

It is one thing to not allow people on your property. It is another thing to keep people from seeing the creative way stones have been laid on it. Dry stone artists should not let themselves, or the images they take of their work, be owned or censored.

The herringbone pattern

We used a herringbone pattern on the Irish Ditch the students built in Brockport last week. It's a very structural type of bond. 

The pattern does however require more cooperation and planning when taught in a group. Stones can't just be laid anywhere along the wall at the same time by all the students. There is a bit more waiting involved

To accommodate more students being able to lay stones, we placed a temporary upright 'resting' stone in the middle of the row we were to begin to build. (note the cube-like stone positioned on the wall just behind Judy, the lady in blue) 

When this is in place, two half-rows of leaning stones can be built at the same time. When the whole row is complete, the resting stone is taken out and replaced with two leaning stones.

In regular horizontal coursed walls, stones laid flat have only their own weight (and the weight of some stones above them) to limit any shifting, but stones laid diagonally (as in a herringbone pattern) are further held in place by the weight of all the stones leaning to the left or right of them. 

Stones in a herringbone wall are more connected and their dependence on each other is quite structural. 

People who depend on each other are better connected too. The song Lean On Me talks about the importance of knowing you can lean on someone. 

I know I'd rather be in a dynamic 'herringbone community' than a static boxy-caged rigid-gridded one. Stones (and people) that are merely butted up against each other, but not leaning on one another, can give the appearance of stability, but in fact can still be reluctant to be in any meaningful contact, and in the end, tend to fall out.

Brought Together

One traditional Irish 'Feidin' wall deserves another. This time it is in Brockport N. Y. No hands were harmed in the building of this wall during the two day workshop Patrick and I taught at Sara's Garden Center. 

Kathy who runs the garden center expressed it best on her Facebook page.

'What an absolutely magical 2 days...seeing virtual strangers brought together by a single intriguing pull - this "hard-wired" connection with stone...they come devoted to a project unseen and 48 hours later fulfillment happens, visions and dreams come to life...rocks become stone with intent...thanks much to these magic makers...many will benefit from these minutes given. We love this project and can't express enough the amazement, the awe, the gratitude and love..

carry these feelings with you...they are inspiring.'

Deconstruction, not destruction

There is much that can be learned taking apart something that you've built, just as there is much to be learned doing something perhaps that's never done or built in the first place.  

Creativity, even deconstructive creativity, is a learning process and will almost always involve a certain degree of risk.

The kids at Amherst Island learned some valuable building lessons building walls with potatoes at this year's festival. The reward of play-building, the thrill of experimentation and the sense of accomplishment far exceeded the risk of disappointment or failure.

So too, the rewards for those happy men and women creating with stone at this year's festival far exceeded any risks of setbacks, criticism or concerns about exploring (or being taught) less conventional approaches to building walls without mortar.

AndY-ukon Goldsworthy

Having had success building smaller potato arches over five gallon buckets last weekend with kids at the festival, we then tried (several times) to build one over a 28 inch plastic barrel. It never quite succeeded. I'd like  to give it a try again some time with no small potatoes. Maybe I will put out a coffee table book some day with arty potato installations and clever thoughts about the creative process.

Rick Mercer visits the potato event

It was great to meet Rick Mercer and have him help me with the Kids Potato Walling Event on Amherst Island at the Irish-Canadian dry stone festival on the last weekend in September 2015.

He was genuinely surprised how well potatoes worked as a building material

They filmed him faking removing a bucket from an already built potato arch.

He asked me not to try to be funny because that was his job.

The kids buried one of the waller's son, Nathan, in potatoes. Rick thought it was pretty funny.

A 'Spudding' Art Form

At the Amherst Island Irish-Canadian Dry Stone Festival last weekend we got to experiment building spud walls. These were no small potatoes. And there were a lot of them too. 

We purchased two tons of them from Tupling Farms near Shelburne Ontario. The children from the island built walls, forts, boats and pyramids. The nice thing is that building with potatoes is not just a whole lot of fun, it's safe.

Here are two big kids taking a break from working with stones to play with 'tatties'

This was our first potato sheepfold. 

This was the firstarch of several we built on Saturday.  Starch… get it? 

Parliamentary Coverage

"The world's first attempt to mimic the ancient mystical Mayan Celtic lunar solar sun stone calendar" Wow!

The game changer we predicted. http://thinking-stoneman.blogspot.ca/2015/04/predicting-and-creating-solar-alignment.html

...the beautiful stone walls rise...

Photo by Sunny Wieler

Among other special guests and diplomats attending the festival on Amherst Island last weekend was celebrated Canadian author Jane Urquhart. She spoke wonderful words of encouragement to the people of Amherst who had come out to this special dry stone event in great numbers. She read a moving passage from the last chapter of her novel The Stone Carvers. It was one of the most powerful moments of the Irish Canadian Festival.

'And so the impossible happens as a result of whims that turn into obsessions. A priest is struck with light in an unexpected valley, a king requires rainbow machines, on the one hand, and a belief in the magic of distant landscapes, on the other. A Canadian man dreams the stone that will be assembled and carved to expiate the sorrow of one country on the soil of another. The men in the counting houses of government rage against the expense, preferring to hoard their coins for the machinery of war. And still the beautiful stone walls rise in barely accessible, elevated places. Heart breaking operas are written and performed in various private and public rooms. Mass is celebrated. And the windows and statues and towers are maintained longer than you might think, in the face of autumn's bitter winds and winters frantic storms. If you stand in certain  parts of the valley you can see them shine. A clear flash of silver or alabaster in daytime, lit by a rich inner fire, or reflected moonlight at night, they disperse light and strength and consolation long after the noise of the battle has ended, and all of the warriors have gone home.'

Thinking With Computers Is Handy Too

Yesterday John Bland sent me jpgs of the original designs he drew on Sketchup for the dry stone solar alignment project he devised and staged for Amherst Island dry stone festival last weekend. 

Sketchup is a free application that uses advanced computing features to enable the user to create, visualize and move objects in 3 dimensions. Its accuracy provides a way of positioning in a virtual way, imaginary objects in real space but more impressively, by calculating the shadows the objects make, the program shows what the objects will look like in time too. 

Prior to the actual festival weekend John went to the island and located the points with GPS co-ordinates from his Sketchup calculations. He set up batter boards and string lines and so give the festival wallers the guides needed to build an arrangement of dry stone structures (with seats and walls) that would not only have an opening for the sun to shine through, but predict where the sun's beam would hit at a certain prescribed time.

Then during the festival, the structure was carefully erected, stone upon stone, in great anticipation that the sun would align with everything at 6:30 on the last day of the festival, just as the program predicted it would. 

At the precise moment this photo was taken on Sunday, the evening the clouds parted, the sun came out and a circle of light appeared on the target wall (where you see it in the photo to the left of John's shoulder and to the right of the carved stone ). 

Yesterday, when he got home, John punched 6:34 ( the time that photo was taken) into his Skecthup calculations. 

The program spit out a drawing of where the beam of light would have to be focused for that exact moment on Sunday. 

Voila ! The structure had been built and aligned perfectly with the predicted movement of the sun !

John was so excited t see how everything had worked so well and texted me right away to say he was 'freaking out'. 

We agreed that this success opens up the possibility for other new designs incorporating modern computer capabilities with ancient dry stone techniques. It presents more opportunities to explore (at future festivals and demonstrations) the exciting relationship between time and space and structures made with stone. 

Aperture

Everyone had their cameras and iPhones poised and ready for the moment the solar alignment took place at Amherst Island yesterday around 630 pm. 

By his calculations John Bland anticipated the sun would shine a beam of light through the massive drystone aperture structure the festival wallers had worked on for weeks and  completed less than 15 minutes before, to illuminate the target circle (a special commemorative stone carved by Tracey Mahaffey ) on another structure built on site sixty feet away.

After a dramatic delay of 3 minutes the the clouds parted, and the setting sun's light came streaming through the Celtic Cross aperture onto the wall.

At the moment the beam of light appeared (as predicted, and only off the target spot slightly because of the three minute delay) the huge crowd cheered and the whole thing was captured from many angles digitally through many high tech imaging devices.

Here Ken Curran's happy face was captured on Ben's Smartphone lit up by that beam, as he and Jordan and another waller posed in front of the target

Others watched and took photos from behind the aperture structure.

The aperture opening proved in fact to be perfectly aligned with the target.

This carefully built dry stone installation on Amherst Island has introduced a wonderful new relationship of motion time and celestial synchronization into the art of dry stone walling in Canada in the 21st century. 

Here are some of the key wallers who happily gave of their energy, skill and time to create the aperture - an 'opening' for everyone to begin to enjoy a new phase of walling in Canada. Let's hope it will be as exciting and as happy as this day was at the Irish Canadian dry stone festival Sunday September 27 2015 ! Thank you guys ! 

And thank you Amherst Islanders .

Speaking to the Crowd at the Irish- Canadian Walling festival

Quite a large number of enthusiastic people from around the world have come to be a part of this well organized and very happy dry stone walling event in Canada this year. There's still time to join us for another full day of exciting activities.

A Family Event.

Students at the Irish Canadian Dry Stone Wall Festival on Amherst Island near Kingston Ontario this weekend will be working on a traditional Irish 'Feidin' wall. 

Patrick McAfee who is instructing the training course along with a dozen or so professional volunteers explains that examples of this unusual style of wall are found predominantly in the Aran Islands on the west cost of Ireland. The larger upright stones are called 'mothers' The smaller flat stones are called the 'children', and the large uprights on top are called 'fathers'.

We have gathered some big mothers for the  'Feidin' walling event.

Some are carried and laid in place the traditional way 

Some are lifted by Irish Bob Cats.

Here Patrick is making sure all the mothers are standing up straight

And now he's taking a short rest, sleeping between two of them

There were tons of other things happening at the festival site yesterday and there will be tons more happening today. I'll try to have some photos posted of a lot of the festivities during the day. 

If you are planning to come today don't take your car on the ferry, just walk on. The festival site is walking distance from where the ferry docks on the island.

An Irish Welcome

Having just arrived in Toronto, Patrick had a bit of a puzzled look on his face, as he watched me pull in to scoop him up at the airport yesterday evening.

I had spent the day driving up near Shelburne in potato country. I had timed it so I could get the two tons of potatoes  we needed for this weekend's children's event, and then swing by the airport, with the trailer load, and pick him up too.  

I figured he'd appreciate the great effort we've all taken to infuse this year's festival with a distinctly Irish theme.

Amherst Festival Update

Patrick McAfee, Norman Haddow, Sunny Wieler, Ken Curran, Tracy Mahaffey, Karin Sprague, Phillipe Smith, Danny Barber, Alexandra Morosco, Jake Murray, Jason Hoffman, John Scott, Scott George, Dan Pearl, Christopher Barclay and many other professional wallers and stone artisans from around the world will be there at the 2015 Irish-Canadian Dry Stone Festival on Amherst Island this weekend, starting on Friday September 25th   

Rick Mercer will be coming to the festival on Saturday too.The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Hon. Michael Coteau will be coming to the event on Saturday as well.  The Irish Ambassador - Dr. Ray Bassett will be there with his wife Patricia and Jane Urquhart will also be there.  The Irish Ambassador intends on being there both Saturday and Sunday. 

And the music will be awesome!  ….with special musical guests Seventh Town, The O'shraves and Turpin's Trail to name a few of the groups performing.

Unveiling in the Rain

Last Saturday we were pleased to attend the ceremonial unveiling of the newest addition to the Haliburton Sculpture Forest. It was very rainy but everyone was in good spirits and the grass atop this dry stone feature the students and I built last July got a good watering.

Jim Blake curator of the Haliburton Sculpture Forest said a few words to introduced the sculpture.— at Haliburton Sculpture Forest.

Barb Bolin, chair of the board, spoke about the history of the Sculpture Forest and thanked all those involved.

Murray Fearey, Reeve of the municipality of Dysart et al attended the ceremony

Members of the board helped unveil the new sculpture.

The Haliburton Sculpture Forest is a unique outdoor collection of sculptures located in Glebe Park near the village of Haliburton, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by the non-profit organization Haliburton Sculpture Forest et al.

Vote Where to Move the Boat

THE FARLEY MOWAT BOAT ROOFED HOUSE RELOCATION – Public Comment Opportunity

 

The Farley Mowat Boat Roofed House is currently located at 20 Catherine Street in Port Hope and is considered the largest monument dedicated to Farley Mowat in the world.

 

Council authorized the donation of the monument from the current owner to the Municipality. The Parks Recreation and Culture Advisory Committee presented two potential locations to Council for consideration of the relocation of the boat roofed house.

 

The two locations are now being presented to the Public for comment and feedback from September 21st to October 5, 2015 in order to determine the.  After the public consultation process, a follow-up report will be presented to Committee of the Whole on October 20, 2015 with a recommendation of a site for the Farley Mowat Boat Roofed House monument. The recommended sites are:

 

            1.  Riverside Park; or

            2.  Eastside Ganaraska Park.

 

Comments sheets are attached for download and are also available in hard copy at the Jack Burger Sports Complex, Town Park Recreation Centre, Ruth Clarke Activity Centre, Canton Municipal Building, Port Hope and Garden Hill Public Libraries and the Port Hope Town Hall.

 

Comment sheets can be emailed to rvorsteveld@porthope.ca or can be dropped off at the above locations.

 

 

Eastside Ganaraska Park across the river from the Port Hope Public Library Within Circle at Riverside Park (north side) on Mill St South across from the Ruth Clarke Activity Centre  COMMENT SHEET Farley Mowat Boat Roofed House Relocation Recommended locations for the relocation of the monument are: Riverside Park; or   Eastside Ganaraska Park Name: ________________________________________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________________________ Phone:  ________________________ Email: _____________________________________________ Please provide your comments below. If you require more space please use attach additional sheets. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ Please return your completed form to locations listed on the information sheet or by email at rvorsteveld@porthope.ca no later than Monday October 5, 2015 at 4:30 pm.  Any questions may be directed to Jim McCormack, Acting Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, 284 Victoria Street North, Port Hope, tel: 905-885-8760 x 4108 or by email at: jmccormack@porthope.ca.