From Newgrange to Morrisville: Laying Loved Ones to Rest
Newgrange is a 5,000 year old passage tomb in Ireland. The kidney shaped mound is 40’ high with a 60’ long inner passage leading to a corbel roofed chamber. It was a temple, as well as a tomb, with astrological and ceremonial importance to its people.
Until a friend made reference to Newgrange, in relation to a work I did last year in northern Vermont, I hadn’t made the connection, but now I see the link between Newgrange and the family cemetery plot I enfolded with a dry stone sculpture. The piece, titled “Stone Eye,” was commissioned in the memory of my client’s wife. The ground at the center of the eye is a two-grave plot. A 10’ long corbelled passage leads under the brow of the eye to an open-air chamber. The oblong, solid stone mound is 8’ high.
In the next post I’ll describe the work I completed yesterday at Wilder Cemetery, here in Dummerston, Vermont. The piece is part of the stone fence that encloses the burial grounds. It commemorates a life at a distance from the grave site.
Thanks to Oliver Parini for his exceptional photographs of “Stone Eye.” Photo of Newgrange courtesy of newgrange.com All other photos © Oliver Parini.