Not the end.

Two more shots I to fit in:

Eric White watches his time-based performance installation.

Billingsley uses the map as a visual aid for a pertinent history lesson.

Thank you all for participating in the blog. Any participant in the symposia is welcome to continue to post photos and thoughts. There is no deadline or timeline.

Keep the dream alive.

the end.

Hello to all following our blog. The wonders and mysteries of Eastern Europe have kept me from posting. This is the end. I arrived home late last night from Finland, having traveled the entire way with Billingsley.

First and most importantly, I owe a deep gratitude to the students for maintaining the highest degree of professionalism and dedication throughout the excursion. You have all represented your school, instructors, and country as ambassadors. I am proud to say that you made my responsibilities a pleasure.

Secondly, I should note that our hosts on each leg of the expedition have formally invited us to return. I intend to. Additionally we made lasting professional contacts throughout the Baltics that will undoubtedly lead to great things for each of us professionally.

Concerning our travel to Russia. We took a luxury bus from Riga to Tallinn-the only way to go! Tallinn was time for R&R, everyone marched to their own beat for two nice days in the city. 4:00 am, the third morning, we boarded another Eurolines lux express bus bound for Russia.

Once in St. Petersburg we had a strict itinerary that we followed flawlessly. Everyone eagerly immersed themselves into their surroundings. The students made every attempt to understand the culture and history, while observing the obvious changes that are making the "new" Russia. Westernization is prevalent throughout the city, corner grocers replaced by designer shops, family restaurants now chains, and sleek European cars have replaced the Soviet Lada. Six years ago guard shacks darkened every street corner with machine gun soldiers. Those olive drab steel shelters have been removed or converted into news stands. The police state does still exist though. They rear their head randomly and without warning by barracading streets, wandering amidst the general populace in military fatigues, and harassing tourists at museums. The country is changing at a furious pace but the tumultuous history is so deeply imbued in the people and culture that no amount of paint or modernization can conceal the past. For me, that constant and unrelenting awareness of the past is what I love about traveling to Russia. The grit, the dirt, eyes on the horizon, and all of the beauty built on the shoulders of the working class make the place. The students this year seemed particularly aware of these things, and expressed an obvious thirst for information about what makes the place Russia. One thing is certain, when a person experiences Russia directly they are changed by it. I look forward to seeing how this trip affects each of those who participated.

In closing, thanks Carl.

This will be the final post from Europe. We will keep the blog going for a while longer so that students can add information now that they are back in

This is a detail of the iron lodestone showing the excellent quality of the casting.
The Kidwelly / Prime Meridian Lodestone
The original stone and the Cast Iron Lodestone
The iron stone revealed
The casting is still very hot!
Opening the mold.

Izvinitye ya ne gavaryu pa Russki

Hello all. Over the course of the past four or so weeks I have been uncertain as to what information I should post on the blog. When I did find myself with some interesting or intriguing prose I somehow decided to postpone posting it. However, since we are now in the final days of our forays into the foremost artistic realms of the Baltic countries, I felt I should share a few things about one experience that has already forever changed the way I will view the art world. Yeah, I'm talking about Russia.

It is impossible to describe St. Petersburg in less words than it would take to write a small novel. The city is under a constant state of development and restoration, but it hardly seems to have lost it's luster. It was made apparent to us early on that the creation of St. Petersburg was to stand as a physical representation of Russian might. In my opinion, that intention was utterly successful. Honestly, this city scared the hell out of me at first. I have never been to such a place. Everyone powerwalks. If you're old an stove up, you powerstrut. No one smiles on the street. If you make eye-contact with a passerby they immediately look down at your shoes and look back at you and you know that they know you're an American. There is a constant threat of being pooed on by the millions and millions of pigeons. If you cross the street at the wrong time drivers accelerate faster toward you. Thousands of windows. Police carry two guns. All the qualities of St. Petersburg - the architecture, the art, the traffic, the people, etc - share an underlying intimidation factor and passionate intrigue that would literally fry a foreigners brain should they not stop to take a rest. The sites/sights we have seen thus far in St. Petersburg have been so unbelievable - it is my impression that they can only be described or catalogued fairly in a categorized list entitled, "Awesome."

Awesome

• The Russian Museum
• The Russian History Museum (celebrating 300 yrs.)
• Peter and Paul's Fortress
• 19th century prison
• Peter and Paul's Cathedral
• Russian Space and Rocket Museum
• St. Isaac's Cathedral
• The State Hermitage Museum (twice!)
• Hydrafoil Boat Rides
• Kunstkamera (archaeology, ethnology, oddities museum)
• Church of the Savior on the Spilt Blood
• St. Petersburg Art Academy
• Peterhoff

I would also like to make note of a truly remarkable celebration we partially witnessed last night. As I write this I am having a discussion with our hostel receptionist about the ceremony entitled The Holiday of the Crimson Sails (Alye Parusa). She tells me it is in recognition of the last day of school for St. Petersburg's high school graduating class and afterward St. Pete throws out all the stops as everyone is invited into the heart of the city for the party. The is an old story that this celebration stems from, written by Alexander (Grin?). To summarize, a fair maiden falls in love with a fair prince, but trouble ensues and they cannot be married, so she perseveres through a series of struggles and is eventually whisked away into Happily Ever After in the arms of the prince on a ship with red sails. Sound familiar? Of course - there are thousands of songs, poems, Danielle Steele novels, and movies utilizing this plot. However, this story stands as a symbol for the graduating class of St. Pete. It is a "follow your dreams" sort of scenario, but I find it interesting that they personified it into a Holiday. Clever and endearing, if not anything.

In the Neva River/Canal, right in the middle of St. Petersburg, they literally had 2-and-3 mast ships with red sails, which coasted through the Troitsky drawbridge under a firework lit sky, and probably out into the Baltic. There was also a free concert in front of the Hermitage Museum and around the Alexander Column (by the river) featuring pop groups which performed alongside acrobats from Cirque du Soleil. At this concert was a huge crane that dangled a massive strobe-lighting chandelier over the crowd. When I say massive I mean it was probably around 50 feet tall.

Unfortunately we only heard the fireworks, and could only see the chandelier from a distance; this all due to a fact I was just told by our hostel receptionist. There were over 3 million people there last night. Now that I think about it - I believe it. I have never seen so many people - all teenagers or people in their 20's or 30's, and every. single. one of them, was drunk. Imagine weaving through a literal sea of young drunk people, all screaming in Russian. Very tense, but entertaining. We took a hydrafoil boatride through the canals to both avoid and watch the runamok masses, and at the same time befriended some locals on the boat. We made our way home this morning at around 3:45 a.m. with the party partially still raging, and others leaving en masse. The city streets were completely trashed. Glass and garbage literally everywhere. However, here's a testament to the city of St. Petersburg; We walked to the harbor this morning to catch a boat to Peterhoff at around 10:15 a.m., and in order to get there we had to walk the same streets the party took place on. They were completely clean.

The Wales / Prime Meridian Lodestone

This is the Kidwelly Castle where the selected exhibition for the Iron Conference will take place. I see this every day from Andy's back yard!
This is a view of the quarry at the edge of the Pricili Hills. Deeper into these hills is the source of the hearth stone at Stonehinge.
This is the Bluestone that I selected for the Prime Meridian.
The stone in the mold. About halfway through the process of making the piece mold.
The mold in it's wooden flask, being prepared for casting.
Welsh iron from the Dragon Furnace being poured into the mold.
The last tap being poured into the mold.

Hello from Kidwelly, Wales.

While Stuart and the group are busy exploring St. Petersburg, Russia, I have been here in Wales working at the West Wales School of the Arts with Andy Griffiths and his great crew of iron casters. Andy is the co-chair of the upcoming 6th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art. Somehow, in addition to all the work he is doing to organize the conference, Andy found time to assist me with my "Lodestone Project". This Lodestone will be sited on the Prime Meridian. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Andy and the crew for helping me. Thank You!

The team! A wonderfully generous and hard working group of folks who made this possible .

THANK YOU!

Hello Everyone,

I am posting this from Wales where I have gone to cast another Lodestone at the West Wales School of the Arts. Andy Griffiths has been a fabulous host and has made it so easy to get the proper stone and make the mold. The project is going along very smoothly and quickly. Stuart is off to Russia with a group of students, Ken has taken his lot to Tallinn and a few have had to return to the States to teach or are continuing their travel to other places. I posted images from the opening of the Pedvale Exhibition which Laura e-mailed to me here in Wales. We had good weather for the opening although it looked like rain any minute right through the day and evening. The next day was cold and overcast so it was OK for travel. I flew to london and took trains to Kidwelly where I was met by Andy. I am staying with Andy and look out of the back window of his place at Kidwelly Castle. The castle is a remarkably well preserved 12th cent. bastion where the International Iron Conference will stage the selected exhibition. I will try to get an image on the blog later.

Carl

Images from the opening of the exhibition at Pedvale

Ojar's installation "Stone in the Snowdrift"
Ojars sees Pedvale from the snails point of view
Mallory and Zack's valley of stones
Paulis and Ojars in front of "Urban Stones"
Ken receives a stone to plant from Ojars
Jason standing inside "Shadow of my Father"
Grace and Cole with Ojars
Austin standing next to his "Red Room"

Andy and Ojars

Tallinn

Tallinn is truly a magical place. First of all let me remark about Soviet Russia, as we are going there tomorrow. With every country we have visted we get one step closer to to being in Soviet territory. We first started in Finland, well known for there socialist innovations, but still quite Westernized. Next we spent time in Latvia, mostly unknown in the US. But the Soviet presence became more emminent, with beeraddicted soviet era tractor driver(gotta love em) and even the accents seemed to clue into something bigger, its hard to describe. We were in the middle of nowhere mostly, so it couldve been almost anywhere. But Tallinn, Estonia the whole Soviet thing is glaring at you. There is a tshirt and liquor shop here where 95percent of the shirts are a variation of a middle finger to Stalin and co.

BUUUUT, anyway, This is a truly magical place. In old town we ate at a restaurant that had been serving food for probably 400 years. We ate in a dining room like you see in Robin Hood movies or a Renaissance Faire, except this was really really authentic. I ate Wild Boar yesterday. IT was amazing. Others in our group got elk and it was like the best steak Ive ever had. OMG!

Its also a really friendly and chill town. Today I found the Major art Museum by just asking people for directions. There are so many trams and buses running around that you dont need a cab. oh! and the people walk so fast! I cannot keep up with anyone here. Which is funny because I think of myself as a fast walker, but I truly get out walked by anyone! Also the diet here and Pedvale and Kellokoski is making me fat. Yes I have devoloped something new here: a belly. LoL.

I wish more of companeros were blogging. You should chide them into submitting. Carl did such a good job that I didnt even need to add to, but now that he is off to Wales its all up to me and the other students. Anyway. Iäll report back to yaökk in Russia.

Pedvale Reception Description

Please excuse my punctuation mistakes, dont have time to find the right keys.

A lot has been going on since Carlś last post. I will try to summarize as best as I can. We only had one slow PC in beautiful Pedvale Sculpture Park and it was hard to access plus we were hard at work on sculpture+labor. Which was why we came to Latvia. For me this was so nice. As a Graduate Student for the past two years I have been on the computer more than making actual artwork and finally to have a couple of weeks to focus all my time on one artistic endeavor was quite a needed treat.

Id like to upload some photos of the reception and everyones final work but Iäm in a nternet cafe in Tallinn and this will have to do for now. Everyone of us labored till the end on our and eachothers artworks. We met for breakfast at 9am everyday and worked in groups till 1pm for lunch. Then trooped back out into the park until dinner at 7pm everyday. It was like an art summer camp.

The reception saw about 50 Latvian guests. Ojars Feldberga, an extraordinary human being, started the reception off with a stone+planting ceremony, wherein he donned full camoflage fatigues and different hats representing the stones´ origins. Then we marched on out to everyones sculpture where Ojars (the curator and MC) said a few words and then the artist said a few words which Laura, Ojars artist daughter, translated for Latvians and Americans. Personally, It was the first time I have ever spoken in front of a group with a translator. You know I ate it up. Everyone did a super job on their pieces and spoke very well about them. It was a very tremendous experience.

Two of the sculptures were performative. Opening act: Cole and Mallorys were lit up as the sun was setting. The Hobbits: Mike, Alex, Eric, and Jesse had a huge performative piece with fire (wait till you see the pictures) that gave us the cresendo and finale of the night. Many of the pieces were actually about Pedvale and many were dedicated to our esteemed professor, Carl Billingsley. It was apparent to me, a first+timer at Pedvale, that this place and the people that bring this symposia together have a special history.

Chris Peterson works on his sculpture as students watch
Ken Payne working on "AbavaVenus"
Colton rides the giant snail!
Colton & CJ make finishing touches to "Steady Mover"
Ojars gets more stones!
The crane at the nest& an egg about to land.
The first egg goes into the nest
Stuart & Ojars placing the first egg
Adjusting the strap
Another delivery
The eggs must be kept warm!
Hello...Hello......

Stuart & Aaron working
Cole & Mallory working
LUNCH BREAK!
Ken Payne working
Jason working
Eric, Mike & Jesse working
Carl working
Austin working
Andy working

Monday June 7, 2010

Pedvale Open Air Museum and Sculpture Park

Sabile, Latvia

The Summer Sculpture Abroad Program is more than half way through this year’s schedule and at the halfway point in our Pedvale experience. The students have self-selected to work alone or as groups in creating site specific sculptures in the environment of the Pedvale Sculpture Park. Austin Sheppard, Andy Denton and Jason Stein , all from ECU , have chosen to work alone. Cole Kernstine ( ECU) has teamed up with Mallory Schiller( Buffalo State) while Colton Winchester ( ECU) has teamed with Curtis Miller ( SCAD) . Buffalo State students Zachery Pritchard and Grace Higgenbottom have formed a team and ECU students Eric White and Jesse Morrisey have joined Univ. of Oklahoma graduate students and ECU alumni Alex Knox and Mike Hill to form the largest team. ECU student Aaron Earley has teamed with ECU Group Leader Stuart Kent. Buffalo State Professor Kenneth Payne is making a sculpture as is ECU Professor Carl Billingsley. Images of the completed sculptures and the titles will be posted as soon as possible. Several Latvian artists are also making sculptures for this season in the park as well as Pedvale founder Ojars Feldbergs and his daughter and fellow sculptor Laura Feldbergs. Dutch sculptor Chris Peterson is in residence at the park and has already finished a large granite sculpture and has started on a second large stone!

The season theme for the park according to Ojars Feldbergs is “Stone/Color”. The Latvian artists are creating works under the group title of “Art in the Bushes”. Our group is using the group title “Stone.Color.Response”. Ojars and Laura have been documenting the artists at work in the park as they themselves alternate between working on their own sculptures and managing the thousands of details necessary to the symposium and to running the park. I will try to get some of those images on the Blog as soon as I can. Cable internet connections are not available in the rural sections of Latvia yet so we are restricted to one phone modem for all internet communications so , as you can imagine, there is a constant demand for access to the line and every request must be prioritized. That should explain why there have been relatively few posting while we have been here. Access to the net while the group is in St. Petersburg will be via netcafes so it is much more available and I expect that Stuart and Andy will be posting brief reports from there.

Carl Billingsley

Hello Everybody,

It has taken me several days to get everything in order to post information about our next experience in the Summer Sculpture Abroad Program. We are at Pedvale Open Air Museum and Sculpture Park in Latvia and the weather is perfect! We are making site-specific work in the park using mostly the materials that can be found here; stones, earth, wood, grass, etc. The students have decided to work as individuals or to form collaborative groups and they are hard at work! The sculptures are growing larger and more complete each day and the work is very good! I have posted images of the Park, of individual works and of the students at work. I will post addition images and information soon.

"Sun Chair" Gvido Buls
"Spring Fantasies" Andris Biezbardis
Students exploring the Park
Some Old Guy Cutting Wood
"8-2 =6" Ojars Feldbergs
"Reading Room " Laura feldbergs
Students choosing stones
Storks above Pedvale
Chris Peterson working on "Intrusive Domain"
"8-3=5" Ojars feldbergs
Taking a break
"Ritual Cut" Tanya Preminger
"Midsummer Iron Sun" by Ojars feldbergs