Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Gary, the sculptor
After thinking about what to blog about for three weeks, it finally occurred to me that I should start with something about Gary Kaelson. Actually, I knew I wanted to write about him but wanted to focus on an aspect that most people don’t know about Gary. We all know that Gary is the owner of the Annex, but most people don’t know that Gary is also an artist! For the past three years, Gary has been one of the metal workshop students at Esalen (www.esalen.org), on the beautiful Big Sur coastline of northern California.
For many years Gary had been going to Esalen to do yoga and take in the health benefits of a relaxing week of vacation. In 2005, Esalen added a workshop called “the Magic of Metal: Blacksmithing, Welding, and Sculpting.” He gave it a try and has made it an annual homage ever since.
Growing up, Gary would assist his dad with carpentry projects, something he did as a hobby when he wasn’t busing being a doctor. When Gary was in college in Wichita, Kansas, he took a job with a small concrete company. When miscellaneous repair jobs to the equipment became necessary, the owner taught Gary how to use a cutting torch and arc weld. Although these skills were utilitarian in nature, these experiences sparked Gary’s interest in working with tools and creating things.
During his first workshop, with the help of his two instructors both from Santa Fe, Gary created a garden gate. He went to Escalen with this project in mind since he was in search of an attractive gate near the Bottle Garden at the Annex. As most of you know, the bottle wall is a creative assembly of glass bottles set in mortar. Gary used this as inspiration for the gate, mimicking the bottles with round pipe and square tubing. The second project of that week was a copper rose constructed from leftover copper downspouts that were being installed on site at Escalen. In fact, most of the projects are made from scrap metal that the instructors bring in from the local scrap yards. The philosophy of the instructors is to guide the students while giving them the space for creativity, and successfully keeping the workshop accident free every year! All of the tools used are handmade, since that is the how historically blacksmiths have always done things. Gary’s favorite part of the work is the blacksmithing. “There is something really nice about the metal getting hot and taking on a malleable clay-like form. You can shape and reshape the metal, then if you don’t like what you have made, the metal can go back into the fire and start again.”
The following years at Esalen, Gary’s projects included an alligator for the garden, a panel for cast glass inserts, and an intricate woven basket.
Students at Esalen range from a father and teenage son duo, where the son made a small Hummer from metal, to a doctor from Virginia that created a wind vane for his barn. Friendships are made and most students attend year after year.
Gary has already made plans for this September’s annual workshop. In the meantime, he is honing his skills in his new workshop in the basement of building B. Who knows what he will create next!
To see more photos, go to this page I created to show both the process and the final pieces. Gary plans to have these items on display for the hoe-down scheduled in May (for hoe-down info, look for the next blog entry).
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