Sculpture Walk turns 3 - Meredith event brings art to outdoor spaces

Keegan Rodday of Hanover, Massachusetts, reaches up to pet “Horse,” made by Rita Dee of Bennington, Vermont. (Karen Bobotas/for the Laconia Daily Sun)

Meredith event brings art to outdoor spaces

By MICHAEL KITCH, LACONIA DAILY SUN

MEREDITH — For the third straight year the streets, passages and parks of town are studded with sculptures, 32 of them fashioned by 27 different artists and 24 displayed for the first time.

Bev Lapham, who chairs the Meredith Sculpture Walk Committee, said yesterday that this year 96 artists submitted pieces, many of them for the first time, while some whose works earned spots last year bid to keep them. All were presented to the jury, which chose to to return eight works for another year and bring 24 new pieces to Meredith, some of them by familiar sculptors.

"Toe Dancer," an abstract, kinetic sculpture by John BonSignore of Redding, Connecticut, was a favorite three years ago. Last year he brought "Toe Dancer 3A" and this year added another, turning his duo into "Thrice."

"Snow Goose Landing" in bronze mounted on a rock above the small beach at Lago is the newest of three works by late Beverly Seamans of Newbury, Massachusetts, joining "Osprey," perched at Mill Falls Market Place, and "Wendy," turning a page near the bookstore.

Stephen Green of Lee, whose upturned stone hand — "Advantage" — beckoned in Hesky Park, this year offers "The Mobius Shell," an elegantly carved granite bowl.

"I make rocks smaller," he said, explaining that sculpting is "removing what you don't want."

For the third year, Josie Dellenbaugh of Glastonbury, Connecticut, has displayed in Meredith, following "Snowy Owl" and "Japanese Mother and Child" with "Master Yoga," depicted in the mountain pose joining the thumb and index finger of his right hand at the waist to make a circle. He stands in Hesky Park, where the artist hopes he will inspire the practice of yoga in his shadow.

A pick axe, barrel staves, shovel blade, milk can and flattened wok are among the elements of "General Tsao, He's No Chicken" whose militant stance belies the whimsical bent of Richard Foster of Bristol, who infuses found objects with unique humor.

Dale Rogers of Haverhill, Massachusetts, whose "Dog" stood at the corner of Lake Street and Main Street, has placed "Bird in Hand" at Hesky Park, where the hand with a pair of cardinals, one within and one atop it, seems to wave to passing motorists.

Among the artists Andreas von Huene of Woolwich, Maine offers two pieces, one a slab of carved and polished granite, "Pull of the Moon," reminiscent of rising tides, and the other, "Bull," a boxy, linear beast fashioned from basalt.

Claire Roll of Arlington, Massachusetts, who recently earned her master of fine arts degree from Boston University, also has two pieces along the walk. The first, titled "Release," consists of a split log, each piece mounted with matching expansion foam elements, suggesting the whole was rendered asunder. "Untitled Threshold," opens as a keyhole, which from its place in Scenic Park provides a view of Indian Island.

Two new sculptors crafted images of deer. Quinn Morrissette, a young welder from Berlin, offers "Darling," an elegant buck standing on Main Street, while Wendy Klemperer of Brooklyn, New York has cut out the borders of countries in the body of "Shadow Deer Leaping" in Hesky Park.

The wavy piece of granite carved by Kevin Duffy of Arlington, Massachusetts takes its name, "Hydrolith," from calcium hydride, or the philosopher's stone that is supposed to turn base metals to gold.

William Royal of Southport, Maine, took a glacier in Patagonia, which he watched rushing to calve into the sea, as the inspiration for "Glacier," a piece of granite riven on both sides by the relentless flow of ice. Ice is depicted in marble by Melanie Zibit of Shirley, Massachusetts, whose "Arctic Ice," a shard of Vermont marble, split at the top and holed in the middle, invites pause and reflection.

"Tres Bien," a horse pieced and woven together from freshwater driftwood is an orphan of Hurricane Irene that swelled the Hudson, Walloomsac and Sac rivers, leaving Rita Dee of Bennington, Vermont, the detritus to turn to art. By contrast, "Runner" by David Borrus of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a minimalist human figure in bronze finished with silicon striding at full stretch.

Brochures are scattered at numerous spots along the route of the walk, which runs along Main Street, wends its way through Mill Falls Market Place then cross Hesky and Scenic parks. A schedule of guided docent tours is posted on the website, meredithsculpturewalk@metrocast.net.

Sisters Alayna and Faith Bond from Franklin, Massachusetts, meander through Meredith, stoping at “Bird in Hand” by Dale Rogers of Haverhill, Massachusetts as part of the Sculpture Walk last Sunday afternoon. (Karen Bobotas/for the Laconia Daily Sun)

Andreas von Huene of Woolwich, Maine offers two pieces, one a slab of carved and polished granite, "Pull of the Moon," reminiscent of rising tides, and the other, "Bull," a boxy, linear beast fashioned from basalt, shown above. (Michael Kitch/Laconia Daily Sun)