 | Back Home from the Vermont Studio Center |
On Sunday, January 30, 2000, I left for Johnson, Vermont to the Vermont Studio Center. I spent four weeks creating sculptures, visiting other artists and writers and hanging out with new friends. I returned home on February 25, 2000!
Let me take you on a tour of Johnson, Vermont and the Vermont Studio Center. Click on an image to see a larger version.
This is the old mill where we had all our meals in the dining hall. The food prepared by Mark the chef was very good and the desserts unbelievable. The old Mill also houses a small reading room, the VSC offices and a lounge.
This is where my sculpture studio was located. The first two windows on the bottom floor was my studio. The shop contain woodworking equipment as well as several different kinds of welding equipment. The first few days I had to wait until I got a ride to the next town to pick up steel to create new sculptures. I tried all kinds of new materials from cotton balls to copper, screen to Cor-Ten steel. I finished about 26 sculptures ranging in size from 5 inches to over 6 feet tall.
This is the view from the sculpture barn towards the red old mill, a short walk to the dining hall. I was happy that everything was close together as it was very cold. It was 14 degrees below zero one night and a high of 10 degrees the next day. Brrrr! But the snow was beautiful and I stayed warm creating new sculptures, the whole reason for being at the Vermont Studio Center.
This is the view of the old mill from the house were I slept. Another short walk to the dining hall.
The First three weeks we were blessed with lots of snow followed by days of sunshine. Let's go for a walk....
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Here
is the French Press Cafe where I sat and had coffee usually hosted by Mara. If you ever
stop in to have a great cup of joe, leave Mara a candy bar (Twix) for me. This is a great
place to see the town as people come by and share a little bit of the local events (okay,
they really weren't talking to me, but I always had something to say).
Johnson is not a big town and I was amazed when a tractor trailer stopped to let me cross in the crosswalk.
Beard's Hardware has to be the world's greatest store. The
owners and their son were so friendly and knew where every item was located. You could get
anything in this store, from snow shoes to shoe strings, from nails to nail clippers, from
paint to paint remover, screen, tools, shoes, paper plates, tape, rope and empty boxes! I
was in this store almost every day. It is worth the stop even if you don't need anything,
because you will see something to buy before you leave!
Here is the Beard's Hardware again, but what really interested
me was the town used these little bobcat front end loaders to clear the sidewalks of snow.
The other thing throughout Vermont was you had to watch for falling snow from the roof
tops. It often came crashing to the ground on those days it got above 32 degrees. It
really was dangerous!
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