While my work days have been spent in solitary seclusion, my evenings have been quite sociable. The town of Norfolk hosts Yale University’s special summer art program, located on the Stoeckel estate. Selected colleges from across the country and the world are invited to nominate candidates, enrolled as juniors, for fellowships in the six-week program. Sam Messer, the program director, visited the worksite and invited me to join the group for meals, lectures and figure drawing. It’s been over forty years since I held a charcoal stick in Audrey Flack’s drawing class at Pratt Institute. It was great fun to try my hand at it, again.

Long Train to Columbarium

The Connecticut columbarium wall work is out of the ground and on its way up. Since the last post, I’ve laid the foundation stones and brought the two ends to finished height. The list of ingredients grows as I discover additional stone sources. Starting with ledge scree I collected in Vermont, I’ve added fieldstone from dump piles near the cemetery, modified rip-rap from a local quarry and slate tailings from a Vermont gravel pit. Having a full complement of stone shapes and sizes keeps progress flowing smoothly.

Center Cemetery Columbarium Wall: Crushed Stone Foundation

Between workshop instructing, DSWA examining and rainy days I’ve managed to get the crushed stone foundation in for the Center Cemetery columbarium wall. Stone piles have been dismantled at the town garage stockyard site and stone reloaded on a one-ton truck for transport into the cemetery. Next week will see guide frames set and the building begun on the 165’ long wall.

A Columbarium Wall

Soon, I will begin construction on a columbarium in a western Connecticut cemetery. The term columbarium is derived from the Latin columba, meaning dove. So, what do doves have to do with laying the departed to rest? Traditionally, a columbarium is a sepulchral structure with recesses in the walls to receive the ashes of the dead. The walls of cathedrals often have columbaria. But, prehistorically, those recesses were simply hollows in a cliff face, hollows sometimes shared by nesting doves. Thus, the dove became a symbol of love and peace. In the case of columbaria, the dove represents resting in peace.