Ephemeral

They may be rock sculptures, but they don't stay up long.  I'm only showing you the one at City Ave. & Conshohocken State Road.  Guess it just fell over.  Like the one in Radnor Park and Penn Medicine at Radnor and the small one at the Wynnewood Train Station.  Amazing how unstable these sculptures are.  Even cementing them to the ground and cementing the rocks to each other doesn't keep them intact.  But I have dogged persistence.  I return again and again and again, etc.. etc., etc. and restore them.  (Madness?  Of course.) 

The City Ave. sculpture that Richie and I spent so much time making secure with wedges and cement, I rebuilt rapidly with no cement.  Geh gesind.  The cop who was parked in the deserted station's lot didn't even get out of his car to check on me.  He probably said to himself, "Oh, it's just that mad, rock sculpture guy, again". 

Well, there're two photos of the Radnor Park finished sculptures, one old (last week) and the one I did today, in the middle of the day in this horrendous heat and humidity (mad I tell you, mad!). 

I also checked out the sculpture at the abandoned gas station on Belmont Ave.  It was pretty much intact, even though the construction people had made a side walk in front of it.  I spent most of my time weeding the area around it so people could see it.  Two nice folk stopped and told me how much they like the sculptures.  Bless them, as I was thinking that this was truly a waste of time (as well as making me mad).

Well, the pitiful sculpture at the Montgomery Ave. island is gone.  If you missed it, you didn't miss much.  I knew the Bala Cynwyd Civic Assoc. would re-claim that plot, and didn't put a great effort into making a grand display.  The small flower garden looks quite nice (though it would certainly look better with a rock sculpture smack in the middle of it, heh,heh). 

Oy, Does My Back Hurt!

Thank you to Dr. Peter Wolf for the fine granite blocks he so kindly donated to my efforts to build rock sculptures throughout the known universe.  The fact that he just wants them off his property has no significance to the generosity of the donation.  (Hey, he did go to the trouble to seek me out and to lift them suckers into my car.)  And, damn, but those suckers are heavy.  They could be used for the definition of the word "heavy".
I used the granite blocks twice today.  This morning I went out to the City Ave./Conshohocken State Road sculpture and re-built it with the granite to make it bigger.  (Don't care what people may say, bigger IS better.)  And, as you can see in the picture, the sculpture certainly does look better.  I've also been trying to weed and maintain this little island of shrubbery.  People stop to ask what I plan to do with the property, like I own the place.  Then, look at me like I have two heads when I tell them that I just do this for the hell of it (or like a good neighbor).

In the afternoon, Richie and I got together and built a rock sculpture in his parents backyard.  (Did I mention those granite blocks were heavy?)  Used three of the granite blocks in the sculpture, along with several of my stash of rocks.  Richie was very helpful in both the lifting and the creativity of the sculpture.  Deana and Rob, Richie's parents, commented on how his senior project was the hit of his class.  Who knew that this would be such a big deal?  If only there were financial rewards, I could retire, hire a crew of young people and direct them in building rock sculptures.  Yo, I can dream, can't I?

Anyway, the results of our efforts needed to wait for Deana and Rob's approval.  They were out getting a lesson in how to use their I-Phones.  So, a second visit will be needed to mortar the smaller rocks into place.  However, I think Richie and I did a great job and have no doubt his parents will agree.

Return to Radnor

Finally, yes, finally got back to my sculptures in Radnor.  The two at route 320 and route 30 are still in pristine condition.  Apparently no one goes into that area except the gardners, and they have been gracious enough to leave the sculptures as is.  (They fear the hex of the chupacabra, as well they should.) 
Naturally, the ones at Penn at Radnor and The Radnor Park were totally destroyed.  Thanks to the person at Radnor Park who tried to stack the rocks together again.  I also have to mention that I found the note left under the rocks from some fans who expressed how much they liked the sculptures.  I appreciate these comments because sometimes I need the boost to continue re-building sculptures that were obviously destroyed by others.  (Sic 'em chupacabra!)

Today, I went out with a hombre joven, Richie Weker, an 18 year-old doing his senior paper on the world renowned rock sculpturer, Ed Basner.  Ah, another wasted youth, who conned his teacher into accepting this as a worthwhile school assignment.  Yours and my tax-payer money at work.  He did, however, provide me with much appreciated assistance, and showed a decent eye for the esthetics of the sculpture.  Unfortunately, next weekend is the prom, so we won't be able build rock sculptures together.  Kid's gotta get his priorities straight.  Really, the Prom over building rock sculptures?