2010 finished

These first six or so photos belong at the end of this page with the others of the finished sculptures. When I figure out how to get them there I will move them down. This is "Rising Sun" from one side.

And from the other.

This is a view of one of the exhibit areas in the park with "Reflection" installed in the center.

A view of "Canuck" from the front.

From the back...

And from the side.

Ancient memories was installed the day Mohamad and Saeid left for the airport.

Everyone has to take a break from time to time. Here Mohamad ponders his sculpture and his maquette (the horns were broken off in his luggage on the way over).

Peerapong has created what is sure to be an interesting feature now, nobody knows where this is going....

"Canuck" is getting finishing touches now, with the form created Tony can spend the rest of the time now taking surfaces to just how he wants them.

You can see the pieces flying off as Peerapong uses the air hammer he brought with him.

This one is out of order and I have a hard time moving these photos around so you get a sneak preview of where Peerapong is going with his finish, the stone has dramatic stripes in it...

Saeid was ready to lay his stone down so Old Blue got put to work today again, must not be running in this shot.

On Aug 24 an 25 several members of the North American Stone Sculptors Guild came3 out and set up an exhibit of members' work and also worked on some small pieces. They were set up on the lawn so we had our coffee breaks there, they had seventy five or so sculptures exhibited which was a nice treat for people that came out that weekend. Some came on Friday evening and we watched some videos in the gallery together about different sculptors we know.

The last day Tony had a chance to work we got his sculpture installed, tommorrow Rod is taking everyone to Banff. There is a stone base about 2.5 feet tall under it and mounded up with soil around that. It will really be nice next year when the grass grows in around it.

They stopped in Canmore on the way to Banff and stopped to admire this piece by Alberta artist Al Henderson. All has several sculptures placed around our province.

This is the four sculptors at the top of Sulpher Mountain with Banff townsite in the background. Tanja is still in Germany but we have word that she will return on the 28th, so she will be here for the closing ceremonies and stay a while longer to finish her torso.

Everone opted for the ride up on the gondola even though there is a walking trail to get to the top of the mountain. It is a long way back to the bottom and this shot is from about 1/2 way up.

The horns of Mohamad's goat are roughed in, I like the texture but I don't think that's what he is going for in the end. The hole still has to be opened up from the other side too.

A view from the other side.

Sometimes you're dusty....nope, sorry-he's muddy. That's why sculpture is so much fun.

My nieghbor, Ed Stacy, raises Norwegian Fjord horses and drives them behind a wagon. These horses have a dark stripe running up their mane and down their tail, some even have the stripe right down their back. They seem to be about the gentlest horses I've ever seen but that's because it is Ed that is training them I think. In addition to taking all the sculptors for wagon rides his wife Kathleen cooked a great meal and brought it over, everyone loved it.

Before we went on the ride Ed brought out one of this year's colts, that was a hit with everyone.

There is a herd of freindly cows in the field, last year they checked out Chander when he was there, maybe they thought he had come back but they figured out it was Mohamad after a few sniffs. He got a kick out of that.

Morton and Saeid discuss strategy, maybe stand it up again tommorrow to start on details in the orientation that it will be placed in after it is finished.

Steve is a trooper, with his time almost cut in half Saeid is glad to have the assistance.

Peerapong's piece is ready to install, the base has been prepared and all we need is the crane to move it now.

There it goes.

Right up over the roof of the barn!

Sometimes it takes several attempts to place a sculpture just right but "Rising Sun" droppede right down over the pin on the first try.

there wasn't enough time to install "Repression" or to complete it with the cable that will be permanent. We used some big hemp rope to simulate the steel cable for the unvieling/closing ceremony.

Although it is officially the end of the symposium Mohamad will stay a few more days, his sculpture is also very close to completed. Morton gives him a hand polishing the horns.

Each of the artists recieved a certificate recognizing their participation and a poem about art, made in brass. I wrote the poem in 2008 while I was at a symposium in Viet Nam, here it is;

No Borders

Winds blow

Waters flow

Arts grow

This is August 3, the day Mohamad leaves and we just got his installation done in time for a few pictures.

On the way to the airport Saeid picked up a cowboy hat, figured it was an excellent memento of his time here.

Mohamad thought the same, he picked up four...and three footballs. As it all wouldn't fit in his luggage he wore all four of them onto the plane.

Since she missed the wagon ride earlier in the month Ed invited us over after the others had left, Tanja thought the baby Fjord was a cutie.

She had fun driving the wagon in the field. The horse, Skokie Lodge, needed a strong hold on the riens to keep him from wandering to the side and having some grass rather than driving so at first we were kind of driving from side to side. After Ed convinced her not to let him get away with that we straightened right out.

Friday night we went to Olds for the Chuckwagon races, there were trick riders, chariots, mutton bustin and other western entertainment. She loved it.

The day we installed "Reflection" there were still a few last minute things to do, the recess in the base for the torso to sit on had to be touched up along with more polishing.

When it was time to install "Reflection" we used Old Blue to take the torso, the big crane took the base which wighs about 12,000lb I think.

When the base was placed we had to use shims to make it level, lift with the crane and put in a shim then check, add a little or take out a little. It took at least 1/2 hour to get the base perfect. (see the level on the top of the base). The Torso landed right into place on the first try, Tanja is almost lost for words. It usually takes several tries to get the level or the orientation just right.

A view of the torso from behind against the big spruce tree.

And from the front.

Now some final pictures of this years works and those that were created at Bergen Rocks 08 and 09

Mohamad Reza Yazdi- Iran

"The Ancient One" Marble-2010

Saeid Ahmadi

"Repression" (awaiting final installation)

Sandstone 2010

Peerapong Doungkaew- Thailand

Rising Sun" Marble, 2010

Tanja Roeder- Germany

"Reflection" Marble- 2010

Tony DiGuglielmo

"Canuck" Marble-2010

Until next year....

Bergen Rocks Visitor Info

Dates: July 1-31 2010
Open to the Public: 1pm-5pm daily (Closed every Tuesday)
Opening ceremony: 3pm Saturday, July 3
Closing ceremony: 3pm Saturday, July 31
Tours of Sculpture park, work site and gallery/meet the artists: 7pm every Wednesday

How to get there:
From Sundre-Turn south at A&W 6.4 KM, Turn west (Pioneer Lodge Road/Twnshp Rd 32.3) 1.6 KM, Turn south (Rng Rd 5.4) .5 KM
From Calgary- Travel north of Cochrane on Hwy 22 approx 40 min, Turn west on Bergen Road (Twnshp RD 32.0) to Bergen Store, Turn north 3.2KM, Turn west (Pioneer Lodge Road/Twnshp Rd 32.2) 1.6KM, Turn south (Rng Rd 5.4) .5KM

Admission: $2 pp

On Site:
-Bergen Sculpture Park, 10 monumental stone sculptures created at Bergen
Rocks 2008 and 09.
-Art Gallery featuring works by local and international artists
-Watch sculptors at work as they create monumental sculptures from more than
100,000 LB of sandstone and marble.

Participants:
Tanja Roder - Germany
Peerapong Doungkaew - Thailand
Saeid Ahmadi Iran
Carlos Rafael Valezquez Cuba
Mohamad Yazdi Iran
Dominico Di Guglielmo Canada

June 25, the work area and the gallery are looking pretty good. Have to prep the house and still need to get six more stones, only one on location now. It is quite large and needs to be so Christopher and I took a few hours at over a few days to cleave it to the thickness he needs. A bit of fun to break up the day of moving stone, planting trees, building tools...

This stone is for Saeid, it is ready for the crane to lift the top piece off which will be the one he uses. The other will make a cool table or vertical panel. The top piece, that wieghs about 24,000 lbs, was lifted with chisels and big steel wedges.

This year we have an exhibit that we are really excited about. the Bergen Ladies Aide group makes beautiful hand stiched quilts. On Tuesday members came over to install the exhibit of four wonderful examples of this wonderful artform. They are exhibited in the loft of the barn, with spotlights on each of them it is a great way to make use of that space.

Wednesday the stones arrived, it tooka good part of the afternoon to unload them. While we were doing that Peerapong arrived and started to measure and check his stone carefully even before it was unloaded.

Sculpting began on Thursday, opening ceremonies were held Saturday afternoon with the three scuptors who are here now and a nice little crowd of arts enthusiasts. Despite having participated in at least three international arts events in Canada, freely sharing his artistic inspirations and techniques with local artists and creating public artworks that have helped to make the events successful Carlos was refused a visa to enter Canada by our consulate in Cuba. Mohamad and Saeid will both be late due to delays in having their Visas issued. In European and Asian countries artists are typically given similar considerations to atheletes when applying to participate in international events, maybe that convention will be adopted in Canada when our government recognizes the significance of the contribution these artists make to our society.

2010 Participants

This year selection was very difficult, 62 proposals were submitted for only 5 positions. So many of the projects were wonderful, many excellent sculptors and excellent artworks had to be eliminated. None of those that were not selected should feel that this reflects on their art work. I really wish that we could choose more, in the future that might become reality as some communities in Alberta are interested in hosting symposia. It would thrill me to be able to aid other areas or communities in our province to host one of these events and aquire wonderful works that would remain for 1000s of years into the future.

These sculptors have been chosen to participate in Bergen Rocks 2010!

Saeid Ahmadi, Iran
Tanja Roder, Germany
Peerapong Doungkaew, Thailand
Mohamad Yazdi Iran
Domenico Antonio Di Guglielmo, Canada
Carlos Rafael Valezquez Cuba

One of the programs that I have tried to get going from the begining of Bergen Rocks is sponsorship of artists by others. This year a private collector will sponsor one of the artists that participated last year. I'm so pleased with this, maybe in the future communities or other collectors will see that sponsoring an artist in the symposium is a great way to become involved in the arts, contribute to the event and aquire a piece of art that they could witness the creation of.

Elements in Ice

This summer a fellow from Red Deer, who is passionate about art, visited Bergen Rocks for the second year. He fell in love woth Bergen Rocks and Bergen Store's smoked farmer sausage. While Carlos and I were creating a sculpture for one of his projects in Red Deer he felt that an arts event would be a good way to raise some funding for another project he is involved in in Red Deer, and to give families something interesting to attend during the Christmas season. "Julietta's Place", a 10 unit transitional housing project for women and children that are victims of violence falls under the umbrella of Womens Outreach Society. We only got started on the event about 2 weeks before it was to take place so it was a real whirlwind of recruiting sponsors, setting up the site in downtown Red Deer and getting all of the equipment and materials we would need for the ice sculptures, breakdancers and native dancers that would participate. We had to harvest ice, recruit sculptors, build a stage and artists lounge where we could all warm up if it was cold (and the last day was bitter cold for the grand opening). Ken and his

crew from River City Developments worked like crazy to get everything ready and we got it done just in the nick of time. All of the artists worked really hard too, volunteers made sure we had lots to eat and we slept as fast as we could in the hotel rooms provided so we could get back to work early again each day. The site was ready about 15 minutes before the gates opened for the unvieling ceremony! That was just great! Native dancers and breakdancers put on a wonderful show despite the bitter cold and everyone that came enjoyed the sculptures after they were lit up all at once in dramatic fashion following the ceremony (cut short on account of the cold weather). Here are some pictures and videos that will give you an idea of what got done.

Victor Hernandez a Canadian from Cuba played sax at the opening. He was worried about how the cold would affect his instrument but after we reminded him that he is now Canadian and the cold is something we just deal with he got out there and wailed on his horn. WOW! what a show.

Greg McMartin's chief surrounded by mushrooms, snails and inukshuk was a crowd pleaser.

Will Truchon put up a huge inukshuk that you could see from the road, it was beautiful and let people know there was something going on at the site. The form it's standing on is 8 feet high and 10 feet across so you get an idea of how big this guy is.

It's early in the year for snow around here but we got it this year. Some of the equipment we needed was buried at the bottom of the six foot fence along the back of my place. No problem getting it out of there but first I had to find it.

The ice had a really thick rind on it this year and for most of the artists chose to leave it on and use it to create definition. This one of a thunderbird worked out really well. There were also some air bubbles in the ice which lend some interest and challenge to making everything work out too. My daughter Jessica and her friend Candice helped out with this one and they got all excited about doing some ice carving again when they get a chance, we're hoping to get more locals involved next year.

The indian face here showed up really well from just the right angle, he has sun shining on one side of his face and the other is in a shadow.....you have to imagine it because I didn't get a picture that shows how the illusion is created but still an interesting piece.

The rind really worked to bring out the buffallo.

Eagle and some native symbols-bear's paw and a shield kind of thing
Carlos from Cuba did an awesome job on these two friends, a bear and a raven.

Some tools make the ice just fly and fill your pockets with chips, here I'm using a draw knife usually used for pealing logs, it really pulls the ice off the block and leaves a nice straight and smooth line.

At night the pieces change completely, here is Carlos with his bear and raven after the sun went down. You can see what I mean about the rind on the ice, it was up to 6 inches thick on some of the blocks. You can also see the size of our blocks, not the 36" high and 20" wide ones commonly used in ice carving events. This is so unique we will be able to attract more top notch talent next year to carve "Big Ice" in Red Deer.

It took a lot of ice to create the whole on-site scene and a full day to harvest it. You can't tell but this is Morton, Carlos and Ryan. When we realized we were a little short of helpers Ken got Ryan, a neighbors son, over to help us. He ran the loader while Carlos cut the blocks and I rigged the equipment to pull the ice out. The channel into the lake is about 50 yards long.

Ken was pretty worried about Carlos having an incident with the cold water at the pond. He made us promise to keep him away from the edges and wear the full size life jacket all the time. Here's Carlos with the floater jacket on and as promised well away from the edge.....actually in the very centre of one of the blocks. Well, you just can't keep big kids from playing when there is ice and water involved.

A dance troop from Red Deer came out and did some high energy break dancing for the crowd followed by wonderful native children doing traditional dances. I didn't get any video or photos of them as my camera batteries had frozen up and my fingers were too cold to put new ones in by then, but suffice to say it was awesome. The last dance they took partners from the crowd to participate in the "Owl Dance" then the lights went on the sculptures and people mingled around the site enjoying the artworks for a little while despite the biting cold.

Ken was wanting to do some sculpting all weekend but was just too busy getting things ready on the site. When he got his chance he said to heck with a shovel or chisel, (bless his heart)....I'm going to shape this big block of snow in a hurry. It didn't work out to be the piece he started out to make but he did get a form to develop that we later went to work on and made the face of Old Man Time. Greg McMartin from Bowden got that going just before the construction guys were going to haul the pile away......

See you next year at "Elements in Ice" Red Deer, Alberta

Bergen Rocks Videos

Bergen Rocks 09 Videos

I'm sure it would be pretty easy to put together about 3 hours of video, I have a pile. There is only so much you can get from pictures though so to get the real experience you'll have to come out to the event next year, here are a few videos of different things that went on during the event, you can see it is a lot of hard work and fun too. We create our own ceremonies, emulating the places where these events are celebrated by the commuinities they are held in......these are a good demonstration that this really is a grass roots symposium, we're doing it on our own. We feel that we are making headway though, we had two volunteers from Sundre this year and one from Bergen, in the future we expect that more and more local people will get involved. We donated 30% of the admission fees to local organizations to help demonstrate that art can be beneficial to everyone where art happens.

About 5 days into it we had a flag raising ceremony, as each flag went up we sang the national anthem just like they do in other countries where symposiums are held. Two people showed up just after we started, that made our little ceremony a public event! Here's Paul....

This is an overall shot of the work area when everyone is working, it is exciting and a little noisy. Paul is uing a finger chisel, creating texture on the face of his cross, Chander is firing his bells, Chien is grinding, Gerard is polishing and Carlos is just starting back to work after changing a worn out diamond blade on his grinder.

This short clip is Chien cutting frets. After the slices are cut he will remove the frets with a chisel and hammer or a power chisel. As you get closer and closer to the final surface the size of the frets is made smaller and smaller so that a big piece doesn't come off where you didn't want them to.

Here is Chien removing the frets he cut. When working farther from the surface of the finished piece larger frets are cut and removed with hammer and chisel or a larger power chisel. Even though we aren't purists (using only traditional tools) the work that is realized in only one month is incredible.

Chien uses a large bushing hammer to flatten a surface on "Spring" This may also serve as the texture on some of the piece while other areas are polished. The bushing tool erases the small cut marks left after cutting frets.

Chander is helping Paul to cleave a large piece from his stone that will free up the underside of one of the arms of the cross. First, holes are drilled along the line and then chisels are put in and tightened progressively to apply even pressure. When they get really tight we wait a few minutes to let the energy travel through the stone then tighten agian. The whole process takes several minutes to an hour depending on the thickness of the stone etc. Listening to the energy travel and watching carefully that it is going where it should are parts of the process that take up some time and make it interesting. Here are the last few seconds before a stone wieghing over a ton is removed.

Carlos has the form now and is working the surface with a diamond cup wheel on a grinder, eventually he will work down to polishing pads and water......step by step.

Well, we had to include a shot of Old Blue in action. It chugs and bangs along but gets a lot of work done for us. This may be the oldest relic in use at a symposium anywhere. Bergen Rocks is the only grass roots international sculpture symposium in the world, that makes adapting to what we have to work with nessecary. We move a lot of stone with pulleys, rolling pieces on logs or posts etc. It is more time consuming than at larger events where all kinds of equipment is provided but gives us a challenge and the comraderie that develops as we help each other achieve our work is a big part of what makes this symposium unique.

Carlos is cutting frets on "Prelude". Although it is about 30 degrees today we have to dress up pretty good because stone dust draws the moisture out of your hair (hat, toque), the machines are loud (ear protection) the stone dust should not be breathed (respirator) and there is water flying everywhere (rubber suit and boots). No complaints from the sculptors though, the satisfaction of creating a piece of art that will be enjoyed long after we are gone is exciting enough to make all this worthwhile. The work is as hard as any job in the oil patch but we do it eagerly and the result is always considered well worth the effort.

Biesiker volunteer Mark Stuthiet gives directions to the crane as "Prelude" is guided onto it's base. Several people were out for the whole month of the event to get involved. Stephen Turner (Calgary), Robyn Webster (Calgary) and Mark were here throughout the event. Other volunteers from as far as Kelowna and Vernon put in several days, some local people offered help when they dropped in to see what was going on, inertia is building.....maybe the fun they have will inspire some to explore sculpting for themselves. The symposium offers the opportunity to learn the techniques used, it is inspiring to see peoples interest and their enthusiasm when they realize that they could also do this kind of art themselves.

On our way back from the airport one evening we stopped at the studio of Will Hamm near Cremona. Will makes stringed instruments (awesome stringed instruments) and plays them too. Here he is playing on a (?) I think it is basically an Irish guitar. We really enjoy seeing and experiencing the work of other artists, our own sing songs around the fire at night include instruments such as hammers, bottles, saw blades etc.....what ever makes a noise, and we have so much fun. These people are really creative and it is so interesting an fun to see what they will come up with next.

After the sculptures were installed we spent a couple of hours enjoying them, taking pictures with the group there etc. Here my daughter Jessica and Chander decide to get a look at the park from the top of "Gates to Heaven". What a pile of fun, the realization that the work is done is kind of sad and it seems like a rush to get as much enjoyment from the sculptures as possible before the artists have to leave them here for ever.....too heavy for checked luggage and they would get confiscated in your carry on.

Just having fun.

As I said.......Christine brought out a drum, Gerard picked it up and started a beat. Everyone there grabbed what was handy and joined in, eventually lyrics. Sing songs around the camp fire or these kinds of things that might break out at any time during the work day are a pile of fun, we are hoping that in the future more and more neighbors and other local people will visit the sympoium and experience a little of this kind of thing and add there own individual contribution. We could have a hundred people in on it, banging rocks together, sticks, whistling, knee slapping.........This little session went on for about 10 minutes but here is a short taste of it.