John Benson, stonecarver, calligrapher, sculptor, singer, fiddler, friend, narrates a short video about himself and his work.
The stone-carving shop in the video is the John Stevens Shop in Newport, Rhode Island.
John will be showing some of his work at Imago Gallery in Warren, Rhode Island, starting today, August 27.
Update, Sept 29: John's son, Nick Benson, who has run the John Stevens Shop since John retired a decade or so ago, has been named a MacArthur Fellow. He speaks about it in this video.
Friday, August 27, 2010
"The Gravestone Carver"
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There's a region in the central plains Wisconsin know for its high quality red granite which was quarried for monuments and tombstones. Men and machines would dig pits hundreds of feet deep until either the quality rock ran out or the struggle against the water table was too much. Abandoned the pits would backfill with water.
The quarries attracted local scuba divers because of their depths and collections of abandoned machineries. There were still a number of active quarries in the area in the 1970s and I toured a thriving process mill where the stones would be processed into monuments and headstones. This meant cutting and polishing and I don't recall any carving.
Fascinating glimpse at the artist in your links.
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