Surgery

Yes, it's been a while.  I've been blogging on the Ardmore Patch - www.ardmorepatch.com, but have stopped doing that.  I've had an operation on my right elbow, and, since I'm right handed, I haven't been able to tend to my sculpures.  I still have three more weeks in a sling (someone shoot me).  Then I'll have to do PT.  (really, just shoot me.)  Can't drive.  Can't hold anything heavier than a gnat, and even that is limited to female gnats.  So, the sculptures will have to wait till I recover enough to lift the rocks.  At that time I'll have a whole army of gnats to help me.

And It Snowed, Too.

A blizzard is never a good thing for precariously balanced rock sculptures.  Wind gusts of 50 miles per hour have a considerably deleterious effect on them.  Blanket these babies with snow and down they go.  So, while I enjoyed seeing the first snow of the winter fly by my window horizontally, I knew death and destruction awaited me after the storm. 
My trip past the Wynnewood train station proved my expectations to be correct.  Both sculptures lay in ruins amidst the snow.  Someone had gathered a few of the rocks of the smaller sculpture and placed them against the wood backdrop.  Thank you for doing that.  It really helped in the temporary re-building of that sculpture.  I'm hoping to find one of the rocks I use to form the base after the snow melts.  The new sculpture isn't a "Wow", but will suffice for now.
The major rock sculpture at the Wynnewood Station was also in disarray.  Here, I dug through the snow with my bare hands to find my rocks.  Since I had received some negative feed-back on the last re-building of this sculpture, I tried for a more imaginative look.  I like it better than the previous construction, and hope others do also. 
I was shocked to find that the sculpture at The Hamper Shop was totally obliterated.  No storm could have done this amount of destruction.  However, I had never really liked the way this one looked.  It's saving grace was it's durability.  Now that it needed to be re-built from the base up, I could make something I enjoyed seeing.  During this re-building, two ladies exited the shop and fussed over me and the joy they get from the sculpture.  Thanks, ladies, as I do wonder what (and if) people take note of them.

Lastly, I've included a photo of the sculpture at the Gin Za Japanese Restaurant.  Yes, under that pile of snow is a rock sculpture, or, more likely, its remnants.  We need more sun and warmth before that one gets some attention.

Hijacked By Google

Went to my blog site and found that it's been taken over by Google Chrome.  I spent an hour trying to get to the blog to write about "nothing", but was thwarted by the ingenious devils at Google.  This is why I don't own a gun.  If I had owned a gun, I would have driven to Google HQ and shot up the place.  I'll hold a grudge FOREVER over this needless bit of aggravation.  Fortunately, my wife managed to get me on the blog site, saving Google from death and devastation (for now).  Though only God (and my wife) knows if I'll ever be able to get back here again.
I was re-building the rock sculpture at Ardmore Ave. (yes, it is my favorite past-time), when a young man gleefully approached me.  "Wow, you're the guy who builds the rocks?"  How could I deny it when that is exactly what I was doing, so I said, "Yes".  Stephen then told me how much he enjoyed the sculpture and my persistence at re-building it.  He's a singer and song writer, and I had inspired him to write a song about the rock sculpturer.  He had to have been telling the truth because he started singing the song he had written.  Come on now, how many of you have had a song written about you?  I was really on a high, though somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking, "Bob Dylan has nothing to fear from this particular ditty."
Not that I have much room to criticize someone in the music biz.  I'm almost stone death (Yeah, I meant the pun - sorry.)
So, here are some photos of what the sculpture looked like two days ago, and what it morphed into last night after work.

I Re-built Media

Well, I really didn't re-build all of Media, only the two rock sculptures I have there.  The one in front of Media Lima Dental is probably my largest sculpture.  It certainly feels like a ton of rocks.  Many of them are the large, granite blocks that should stay up no matter how hard the wind blows.  So, I'm thinkin' it's not the wind that's blowing them down.  Gee, those Rock Tumblers seem to be everywhere.  I'd really like to know what goes through their minds when they knock these sculptures down.  Do they get a thrill of satisfaction that they've destroyed something that someone else built?  Do they get a thrill when they find it's been re-built, so they can show their superior strength by again knocking it down?  Who knows?  Maybe they know I built it, and they're ex-patients of mine.  That could explain their determination.  Nevertheless, I spent a lot of time re-building the sculpture with the thought in mind that stability was of great importance.

The rock sculpture at The Cambio Salon was totally knocked off the rock base.  Not so easy to do since I use three rocks as support for the flat platform on which I build the sculpture.  (I'm doing the same thing at the Ardmore Ave. sculpture with the same results - it still gets knocked down.)  Yes, sometimes even I wonder why the Hell I continue to build these things.  I know some people enjoy seeing them as they stop to tell me so.  Yet, there's nothing truly rewarding in balancing rocks that get knocked down all the time.  (Somehow, the one in front of my house doesn't get knocked down.  Oh yeah, like I'd tell you where I live.)  Could it be this is my only claim to fame?  My mark on the world?  (Like I haven't affected the lives of thousands of patients with my dentistry?  And, how significant is that dentistry, when Clara M. just died taking all my caring dentistry with her to the grave?)  Maybe, these rock sculptures are my attempt to make a more lasting impression on the world.  If so, the Rock Tumblers are there to make sure my impression will be short lived.  Anyway, here's the result of the new sculptures in Media.

Adding Injury To Insult

I'm accustomed to returning to find my rock sculpture knocked down and scattered all over the ground.  Yesterday morning, however, not only was it knocked down and scattered, but some low-life took the long, rectangular, marble block that I used so often as a base for the rest of the sculpture.  The thing must weigh between 40 and 50 pounds.  That's like 20 kilos for all of you in Europe who follow my blog. 
Ouch.  It really hurts to know someone feels the pieces are worth more than the whole.  Fortunately, my driveway is lined with rocks with which I can replace (but never duplicate) this big, beautiful block.  Ah well, such is the life of an artiste.  We must suffer in order to produce our art.  I shall carry on with my craft using the materials I have in order to express some unique beauty to the world.  (You know people get paid good money to write this kind of BS.)

Maybe I shouldn't make it so easy to knock the sculptures down.  After all, the rocks are merely balanced one upon another.  Well, actually they are placed with precision and skill, using an aesthetic eye and keen knowledge of physics and static dynamics.  Many of the travelers on Lancaster Avenue stopped and commented on my work.  "What's it mean?", was a frequently asked question.  (Whereas it likely means that I'm nuts and probably dangerous, so bug off before I throw this rock at you!)

Now, for those of you who can't tell, these photos are of two different structures using the new rock as a base.  They're both quite nice, though I never seem to please the Rock Tumblers.  We'll see what tomorrow brings, or more likely, what is left of the remaining rocks.

It's a new day, Sunday April 8th, Easter, and again the rock sculpture was knocked down with some rocks thrown further afield.  Since I was "afield", I brought back a 2 inch thick 3 foot wide slab of slate from the nether regions of the lot.  It's so effin' big that I was at a loss as to how to use it when I placed it on the lower blocks.  It covered all of them.  Well, below are the initial results using this new piece.  After the sculpture gets knocked down and re-built a few times, I'll have a better feel of how it should be integrated into the sculpture.

NCAA Final Four

Sure, you say you don't care, but you know you'd rather not see Kentucky win this tournament.  I'm actually hoping Kansas wins, but would find Ohio State acceptable, too.  What this has to do with rock sculptures is far too intricate to explain here.  (You realize that men never grow up, which is why there are basketball games, baseball games, football games, etc. on TV every weekend.)  And it does make it difficult to find the time to go out and build rock sculptures.
Yet I did find the time to re-build the rock sculpture at Wynnewood train station twice.  I hope you can see the difference.  If you can't, you shouldn't even bother reading this blog.  And it probably indicates that you're a Kentucky fan and not worthy of further comments.  But to be honest, this isn't even what it looks like today, as I refined it this morning after finding that another rock sculpture wanna-be had changed it, making it look like a pile of rocks.  (It was a nice pile of rocks, but not an artistic pile of rocks.)

I've also been re-building the rock sculpture at Ardmore Ave. after it gets destroyed by the Rock Rubblers that tend to get great joy out of knocking it down.  This actually forces me to think of new ways to incorporate the rocks.  In this case, I thought it would be interesting to use the bottom granite block that has an angled surface as a plane for the long, flat granite rock and build around that formation.  I liked the result and it lasted for several days before being destroyed.

Thus, I re-built it anew.  Trying a little different placement of the large white rock.  (No, I have no idea what kind of rocks these are.  Mineralogy what not my major or minor in college.  I was thrilled to get the "C" in calculus and move on.  Hey, I did ace Ornithology which resulted in a great improvement in my cumulative average.)  So Euclid I am not.  Yet, I'm certain I'm giving Rodin a run for his stature in the sculpture society.

Spring Is In the Air

Not even the middle of March and we are having ourselves a mini-Spring.  Temperatures and humidity in the delightful zone.  People walking around in flip-flops with no socks and short pants.  Not me, of course.  I wouldn't be caught dead looking like that.  (Well, maybe if I were dead....  Nope, not even then!)  And speaking of dead, the rock sculpture at The Hamper Shop was completely destroyed.  Unbelievable!!  It was holding up like a rock, which it actually is, only several of them balanced one upon another.  I guess the warmer weather brings out a lot of different insects, including the Rock Sculpture Rubbler, with it's pesky need to make rubble out of rock sculptures. 
So, before work this morning, I re-built the sculpture at The Hamper House, took my photos and got my coffee at Wawa.  (Bob at the Narberth Wawa says "Hi" to you all.)  Unfortunately, I didn't like the photos I took.  I had to wait till after work to return to take better ones.  See if you can tell which were from the morning and which in the evening.

As usual, the Ardmore Avenue sculpture was knocked down.  I was so pleased with how I re-built I took photos of it.  It now takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to build it.  The long, white marble slab is just a memory.  It fractured into multiple, small pieces, some of which I tossed into the surrounding shrubbery.  Who knows?  The day may come when I'll want them again.

Amazement and Excitement at Penn at Radnor

It was an overcast, but mild day in the pleasant town of Radnor.  The people at Penn at Radnor hadn't seen the "Rock Sculpturer" in many, many weeks.  Some had said he was only a legend, and the pile of rocks on their property was just that - a pile of rocks.  But today he appeared and rebuilt the pile of rocks into a bigger pile of rocks.  Two of the folks who work at the facility (and knew of the "Rock Sculpturer" from a relative there-in) came by as I was finishing up my work.  They were awed (OK, maybe that's a bit much)  to meet the actual "Rock Sculpturer".  Offers to give them my autograph were politely declined.  Obviously, they were too star-struck to know what they were saying, but they agreed that the pile of rocks did look better now than it had previously.  These ladies certainly have good taste in art.

I moved on to Radnor Park and found that someone had tried to help restore my rock sculpture to its original glory.  They failed miserably.  It took a while to get it to a state in which I felt it could hold up to the stormy weather coming in this weekend.  With a little luck it should make it, except for the smaller rocks on the top.  They're goners for sure.  I'll have to make a return trip sooner rather than later.

Since I was in the area, I stopped to re-build the sculptures at Sproul Road and Lancaster Avenue.  One was still partially intact, while the other was mostly the dreaded "pile of rocks".  Some Canadian geese were gathered in the area, and were unhappy to have me drop by.  (They didn't realize I am the "Rock Sculpturer" or they would have been more respectful.)  As it was, they were definitely excited.  I re-built my two rock sculptures in the park-like area to the constant, honking criticism of the geese.  I think there's a good chance these sculptures may be covered with goose poop when I return.

The Gift

I came home from work on Sunday and was greeted by my wife with the question, "Did you see your rock sculpture in front of the house?"  Well, the answer, of course, was, "No".  I thought it must be totally destroyed and needed to be re-re-re-built.  She took me outside to see the surprise.  Turns out someone left me a gift of a two foot long, white marble slab that was an inch thick and three inches wide.  It was in pristine condition.  (Certainly not how it looks today having gone through several tumbles and crushings.) 
I usually don't care for such obviously man-made "rocks", but as it was a gift, or, more likely, a throw-away, I decided to use it in the Ardmore Ave. sculpture next time I needed to re-build it.  (Like that was going to be a long wait.)
So here it is at the top of the sculpture, appearing as a long white line.  I was quite pleased with the look of this sculpture.  Wish it had stayed up a little longer, but fate had other plans.  (As we all know, the universe devolves toward chaos, and with rock sculptures that happens rather quickly.)

When I have the time, I can really make an interesting and complex rock sculpture.  (Yeah, yeah, I know, they're just an effing pile of rocks.)  But to me there is a certain beauty to the positioning, balance, coloring and textures of these natural materials.  The next time I built the rock sculpture with this marble piece, I was rushed to get to work.  The result is not nearly as striking.  (Or maybe it is, but not due to the long marble strip.)  The marble piece is further down and on the left side.  Yes, it is shorter.  It's now two pieces.  (Twice the gift it originally was!)  This is going to be a temporary (aren't all my sculptures?) work, since I wasn't able to balance it solidly.  Don't worry, you'll get to see it's next reincarnation.  

While doing a Google search on rock sculptures, I discovered this site.  www.teamsandtastic.com/RockBalancing.  It's really worth a look.

So I Added Another Rock

Last night was cold and snowy.  This morning the rock sculpture at Ardmore Avenue was still up!  Oh, sure, one of the rocks had fallen off, but that was all.  Certainly to be expected considering I haven't cemented the rocks in place.  And since they aren't cemented, it gives me the opportunity to add (or take away) rocks.  Today I added a rock that had been sitting in the back of my car for weeks.  (Yeah, it's a special rock.  It's flat on two sides.)  (Sarcasm.)  I really just wanted it out of my back seat area.  I'm sure the person or people who knock down the sculpture will enjoy having more to knock down.

While getting ready to photograph the sculpture for posterity and you readers, an SUV pulled into the lot.  Drove right up to where I was, and stopped.  I walked over and had a nice talk with Randy.  He said he passes by the sculptures at the Wynnewood Train Station daily and wondered if I was the guy doing them. 

At this same time, a police car stops on Lancaster Avenue and the red and blue lights start flashing.  Is it me or the car in front of the cop?  I'm hesitant to admit anything to Randy at this point till I know where the cop's going.  And he goes to the car - yes!  

Turns out that Randy and I know the same people and live in the same area.  Not even six degrees of separation.  More like two.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate people taking the time to tell me that they enjoy seeing these rock sculptures.  It certainly helps to make up for all the time I find them totally destroyed.  (Must be those damned squirrels, right?)  So, here is the newest version of the rock sculpture at Ardmore Avenue.