Divine Stone

MYSTERY OF THE MISSING CARVING ON THE WEST FRONT

The Cathedral’s Board of Trustees had envisioned that both towers, St. Peter’s on the north and the St. Paul bell tower on the south side, could be completed by 1994 – only 12 years after construction started. That plan came to an abrupt halt in the early 1990s, with only one-third of the south bell tower completed. 

In 1988, work on the south tower was moving along steadily when the string course was set on the Cathedral’s west façade facing busy Amsterdam Avenue.  

Although it offers a selection of whimsical animal carvings, the gallery is full of “dark” carvings and an unsolved mystery.

Among the animal designs, a crab, perhaps representing the Zodiac sign Cancer, seems about to clamber up the tower. Its carver is unknown.

Two other animal figures also appear on this facade. One is a rooster with a regal coxcomb and round circular tail feathers carved by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon. The other carving, by Nicholas Fairplay, may have been inspired by a children’s nursery rhyme. A cat-like creature holds a bow and fiddle, and one can almost hear “Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon.”

A mystery emerges on a stone towards the south end of the string course gallery. One block has no carving at all. Where a raised foliage or some other carving would appear, the stone face is smooth across its entire width. It’s possible that the original instructions on the job ticket were missing or misread so the raised section on the block for carving was not cut to specs.

Master Mason and tower construction supervisor Stephen Boyle cannot provide any explanation. “I think it got missed somehow.” So the stone was set in its incomplete state.

The remaining cornice carvings take on a somber and gloomy tone.

A skull wearing a shroud depicts the Angel of Death. According to Amy Brier, “I like the human skull, it could also be connected to my mother dying a few months before I started working at the Cathedral, I was thinking about mortality and death, in that sort of mood. (I was) also influenced by Gothic depictions of the devil, evil, death.” 

Amy also carved a Vampire bat with a broad leaf-shaped nose, long pointed ears and a wide mouth ready for sucking blood.

Two side-by-side carvings near the north buttress column have a surreal quality to them.

Dennis Reed, a protégé of Ruben Gibson, carved a moon-faced man. It shows a figure with thin wide lips, a broad nose and powerful hands beneath his chin. Dennis likens the tower’s construction to “a temple that constantly needs to be worked on. It’s a metaphor for a spiritual life.”

The adjoining stone was carved by Ruben Gibson, who worked at the Stoneyard Institute for eight years, where he rose from apprentice to stonecutter to carver to lead carver.

This is the last stone Ruben worked on before he became too weak to handle a mallet, in January 1988.  His life was cut short when he died of kidney failure at the age of 39 in the AIDS ward at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. 

It is an eerie work. A demon seems to be emerging from the raw stone, its metamorphosis halted by its creator’s death. Ruben would not have minded that, his friends said. He told them that the cathedral, like spiritual growth, can never be completed.

It is so appropriate that Ruben’s unfinished work is set on this unfinished tower.

• – NW corner, Green Man by Nicholas Fairplay
• – Unfinished carving by Ruben Gibson
• – Moon-faced man by Dennis Reed
• – Foliage 
• – Rooster by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon
• – Cat with fiddle by Nicholas Fairplay
• – Foliage
• – Vampire bat by Amy Brier
• – Crab, carver unknown
• – Uncarved cornice stone
• – Foliage 
• – Angel of Death by Amy Brier
• – SW corner, foliage by Nicholas Fairplay

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• New York Times, Jan, 29, 1989. Stone Carver’s Magnificent Obsession
• All images are those of Robert F. Rodriguez, photojournalist and artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
  

A NEWBY STONECARVER’S FIRST CARVING SHINES ON THE EAST FACE

The bright morning sun fully illuminates an array of cornice carvings on the east face of St. Paul’s tower. 

On the far left of the gallery is a fierce-looking dragon, unlike the shy dragon residing on the north face. Whereas the latter appears docile and gentle, the flying reptile on this wall could almost be a miniature Targaryen dragon from Games of Thrones.

Acting as a bookend to the angry dragon, on the far right side of the line of carvings, is a block very different in style to almost all the other string course carvings. The identity of the carver remains unclear.

It shows a man nonchalantly eating a sandwich. The chisel marks are rough, almost unfinished in some areas, a marked contrast to the highly defined and smooth carvings surrounding him.

There are some interesting backstories to the stones attributed to specific carvers.

In August, 1986, almost two years before the string course was set, Ruben Gibson was working  on a corner cornice stone which has carvings on two sides. The tranquilty of the carving shed was suddenly shattered by a group of young day campers who were visiting the Stoneyard. Peering through the low open windows, the youngsters were quickly mesmerized by Ruben’s work and gazed intently as he continued carving the sinewy leaves in a foliage design.

Angel Escobar contributed a sweet carving of a flower nymph emerging from a flower, its slanted eyes and broad nose poking out from the surrounding petals. Angel was a high school dropout who says his life had been “saved” by the Stoneyard program. He completed his four-year apprenticeship and worked both in the cutting and carving sheds, where he liked to create fantastic creatures. 

A carving by Nicholas Fairplay shows an unusual creature using his one giant foot to shade his face. Monopods are mythological beings with a single, large foot extending from a leg centered in the middle of their bodies. The Greeks called them “shade-footed ones” because when it was hot they would lie on their backs on the ground and seek shade under the great size of their foot.

Nicholas worked at Westminster Abbey and came to the Cathedral as Head Carver to teach carving to the most promising cutters in the apprentice program.

Several years earlier D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon carved a Green Man for a buttress gablet label stop. The Green Man is an ancient mythological character adopted by Gothic stone carvers and seen in churches and cathedrals all over Europe. In Celtic mythology, the Green Man represents the lord of the forest and the patron of animals and fertility. He is mainly a symbol of untamed nature.

For the string course Jessica Aujero Lowrie, newly arrived to the Cathedral carving program, set out not only to carve a “Green Woman” but also to make it a self-portrait. Jessica recently confided this was her first carving at the Stoneyard. After extensive research and numerous sketches, she worked on her clay model.

So, when she tentatively started to carve, she kept a mirror nearby for reference.

But, not content with that, she also kept her clay model behind the mirror. And, to be extra sure of capturing her image properly, she added the sketch behind the clay model behind the mirror behind the carving.

She got it!

Carvings across the east façade string course, left to right: 

• Carvings across the east façade string course, left to right: 
• – NW corner, foliage by Joseph Kincannon
• – Dragon with head down, carver unknown
• – Foliage
• – Foliage
• – Foliage
• – Foliage
• – Long tailed creature by Joseph Kincannon
• – Forest gnome by Angel Escobar
• – Foliage by Nicholas Fairplay
• – Monopod creature by Nicholas Fairplay
• – Green Woman by Jessica Aujero Lowrie
• – Sandwich guy, carver unknown
• – NE corner, foliage by Ruben Gibson

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All images are those of Robert F. Rodriguez, photojournalist and artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

A TEAM EFFORT TO SET THE STRING COURSE

A cornice stone weighing several hundred pounds is carefully lowered into place by several members of the construction crew onto a bed of mortar on the south side of St. Paul’s tower. 

But, before that block for the string course was set, many steps and many people were involved in this finished piece.

A September 1988 edition of Cathedral describes the process. Editor Jane Churchman writes:

“Today (José Tapia, James Jamerson), Pedro Colon, Angel Escobar, Eddie Pizarro, Carol Hazel, Theresa Robb, Yves Pierre, Alan Knight and Tony Quinto cut stones. Precisely. As Theresa warned, ‘You can’t be more than 1/16′ off.”

Jessica Aujero (Lowrie) carves a medieval forest spirit into a cornice. D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon fleshes out a classical leaf on a finial; Amy Brier details a caryatid; Dennis Reed sculpts an American buffalo on one of four pinnacle faces.

Talmadge Fowler and Gerry Perez wait as Harold Dorman drives stones to Wesley Rose, elevator operator, for the ascent to Stephen Boyle, construction supervisor, and setters Joe Chifriller, Edgar Reyes and Raymond Duggan.

Most important to Alan Bird, instructional mason, is the value of each stone. Its permanence. Each stone is different and each stone tells the story of the people who cut and carved it.”

Stepping back even further, each of the thousands of limestone blocks required for the tower has a unique number, which designates its position.

Following the original design by Ralph Adams Cram, Master Builder James Bambridge studies  the blueprints to cut zinc templates and create job tickets so the apprentice stone carvers can accurately cut their stone.

Soon, a raw block with its corresponding job ticket lands on the banker of an apprentice stone cutter. When completed, the block is stored in the yard until a stone carver adds a uniquely designed carving to the block.

The block moves again, into the carving shed, and then back outside when carved.

Eventually it is moved to the south side of the Cathedral close for staging on the ground and, finally, it is hoisted into the lift to the tower summit for setting.

A team effort to set each stone.

The best place to view the string course carvings on the south façade is from the Peace Fountain on the Cathedral grounds. 

One can sit on the stone benches surrounding the fountain while, perhaps, enjoying a coffee and croissant from the nearby Hungarian Pastry Shop. Years ago, many of the Stoneyard Institute crew would get their morning coffee from this neighborhood landmark.

The two-sided corner cornice stones on both sides of the south façade reveal some imaginative carvings.

Nicholas Fairplay’s carving on the SW shows a foliage creature with upturned and swirling leaves surrounding a face with an open mouth.

On the SE side Joseph Kincannon created a regal, well-coifed individual with gorgeous curly hair and a mustache that resembles a King on a deck of playing cards.

The centerpiece on this string course, also by Joseph, reveals a snarling square-faced demon with wide eyes, sharp teeth, yet dainty paws and ears.

Angel Escobar’s two carvings both show fantastic beasts, something Newt Scamander from the Harry Potter films might be searching for.

One of Angel’s works shows a beast with glaring eyes and a broad mustache practically drooping onto the stone below. The other carving resembles a feline animal with curls sweeping away from its face and high arched eyebrows.

One of the more interesting carvings on the south side came from a visiting French artist, Jerome Lantheume. It relates the story of Jonah and the Whale.

According to the Scriptures, Jonah was thrown overboard and was swallowed by a giant fish – not to eat him, but to save him from drowning. Jonah lived inside the great fish for three days until God took mercy on him, with the fish expelling Jonah onto the shores of Ninevah.

Jerome was one of the first carvers to come to the Cathedral in an exchange program with Les Compagnons du Devoir, the “Companions of Duty.” It is a French organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages.

Carvings across the south façade string course, left to right:

• SW corner, open-mouthed grotesque by Nicholas Fairplay
• Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), carver unknown
• Foliage
• Wide-faced grotesque by Nicholas Fairplay
• Funny medieval peasant character by Ruben Gibson
• Foliage
• Wide-eyed demon by Joseph Kincannon
• Fierce creature with droopy mustache by Angel Escobar
• Foliage
• Feline figure by Angel Escobar
• Foliage
• Jonah and whale by Jerome Lantheume
• SE corner, curly haired King by Joseph Kincannon

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• Unless otherwise noted, all images are those of Robert F. Rodriguez, photojournalist and artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

(This is the first in a four part series on the String Course. These stones were prepared by the Sawyer, the Planer and the Cutter before being handed off to the Carver. The co-author of Divine Stone, Robert F. Rodriguez will take us around St. Paul’s Tower viewing these unique carvings. – RM)

From street level, it is extremely difficult to see the decorative band of carvings that comprise the string course on St. Paul’s tower at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This is especially true on the north side where a bundle of internet wires hangs off that side of the tower and the cathedral’s roof partially obstructs the array of humorous grotesque carvings, forest creatures and other intricately carved blocks of limestone. The north facade also lacks the architectural and decorative details such as columns, capitols and quatrefoils that the other sides have.


Work on the string course, the first level of the “C” zone of St. Paul’s tower, began in the summer of 1988. Master Mason Stephen Boyle, the tower’s construction foreman, had a large group of assistants to set the blocks. Besides the regular Stoneyard crew, he was joined by students from the Cathedral’s Summer Architectural program.

When the course of stones was all set, this horizontal line of carvings represented the most comprehensive look at the carvers’ skills and creativity. About two years prior, they designed and carved some 50 figures for the string course, sometimes referred to as the cornice course.

Master Carver Nicholas Fairplay explains the process: “I had the carvings on the string course alternate — every third boss carving is foliage and in between a face boss carving and then a figure or animal boss carving. I did this to train the students (apprentice stone cutters) to be more versatile as carvers. The students had only masonry skills, none of them had done any carving so I needed to find a way to train them quickly.”

Nicholas adds, “When a carving was completed, it had to be taken off the bench and stacked outside and a new stone brought in and placed on their bench. Some of the stones were quite large and there had to be no chips or damage in moving them.”

The finished stones’ temporary location on the ground provided a fleeting closeup look at the variety of carvings where one could count every gnarly tooth on a smiling demon, see the graceful flowing beards of mythological beasts and admire the deeply textured flowers and petals on many foliage carvings.

On each tower face, there are 11 carved blocks in a row, nestled between the tower buttresses on each corner. From there, a double-sided cornice stone wraps around the corner so that a total of 13 carvings face each side of the tower.

While it is almost impossible to identify each carver for all of the foliage blocks, most of the uniquely designed carvings can be matched to an individual carver. On the north face Nicholas Fairplay is responsible for four of the carvings, with two each done by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon and Ruben Gibson and one each by Amy Brier and Gabriele Hitl-Cohen.

In Gothic cathedral architecture, forest creatures were a common theme, with nymphs and other arboreal characters often seen lurking among foliage. Nicholas Fairplay created a forest creature with a broad nose surrounded by a border of leaves, its face blending into the leaves. Another of Nicholas’ grotesques depicts a wide-eyed demon with the face of a lion and an elegant beard.

Nicholas’ most unusual carving for the north face was the head of John the Baptist on a platter, which sits in the middle of the carved gallery.  According to Bible passages, Salome danced before King Herod on his birthday. Her dancing so pleased Herod that in his drunkenness he promised to give her anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Although Herod was appalled by the request, he reluctantly agreed and had John executed by beheading. 

While most of the limestone blocks for the cornice stones were about three-feet wide and weighed over 800 lbs., the stone for the John the Baptist block is extremely narrow, giving the carver a tight space to work on. This stone is a centerpiece, whose positioning allows all the carvings to be evenly spaced on the tower, according to Stephen Boyle.

For his two carvings, D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon produced a snarly-toothed lion with a gorgeous flowing mane, mustache and puffy cheeks, and a shy dragon, possibly napping, with its head tucked next to its wing. “Jeep” worked with either a clay model or a number of refined sketches as his templates while he carved these pieces.

In many of his works, Ruben Gibson liked to carve demons and other eerie grotesques. On a corner cornice block, Ruben created a wavy-haired grotesque with a downturned mouth, and on another block he created a flabby cheeked demon with a narrow mouth and a high crest above its eyebrows. 

Faces of female figures appear in two of the carvings on the north side by Amy Brier and Gabriele Hitl-Cohen. 

Gabriele remembers that with this block she learned how to carve the flowing and wavy lines of the figure’s hair emerging from underneath a delicately carved veil to give the work a Gothic look. 

Amy Brier notes “I was interested in adding a female to the string course, making a mark for gender equality perhaps, but I probably didn’t think it all the way through at that young age.” Recalling her carving over 30 years later, she remarks, “I look back and am unhappy with what I see as a terrible job! I am a lot better now!” 

Amy has come a long way since she left the Cathedral program and has continued working in stone. Besides teaching at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, IN, Amy has numerous public carvings in Bloomington, IN, Layfayette IN, and Hamilton OH. She is especially proud of  her work on the new Fall Creek Pavilion and the Indiana State Fair. 

Carvings across the north façade string course, left to right:

• NE corner, wavy-haired grotesque with downturned mouth by Ruben Gibson
• High-browed grotesque by Ruben Gibson
• Snarly Lion by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon
• Woman’s faces by Amy Brier
• Forest creature by Nicholas Fairplay
• Foliage
• Head of St. John the Baptist on a platter by Nicholas Fairplay
• Foliage
• Foliage
• Woman wearing a veil by Gabriele Hitl-Cohen
• Shy dragon by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon
• Green Man grotesque by Nicholas Fairplay
• NW Corner, foliage by Nicholas Fairplay

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• All images in this post are by Photojournalist Robert F. Rodriguez

Word has reached us regarding the passing of stone carver and sculptor Kazutaka Uchida. We wish to offer condolences to his family, students and his many friends in the stone carving community. He was very proud of his many summers spent in the United States in the Pacific Northwest; Marble, Colorado, and Northern New Mexico teaching and working on his own carvings.

He was born and lived in Japan where he first studied sculpture. He received an advanced degree in sculpture from the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1975. He returned to Japan and was commissioned to researched artisan traditions for the Japanese government. His experiences in Nepal greatly affected his art and his life.

Uchida found resonance in clear lines, subtle beauty, harmonious relationships, and the quiet power of elemental forms to evoke the transcendence and a feeling of Zen-like monastic tranquility and peace. The museum director Stephen C. McCough describes Uchida’s sculpture…”It is an art of large and simple gestures which lead the eye through and around the piece and then into the surrounding space. His forms are elegant and refined. They consist primarily of the sphere, the plane, the disk, the straight line and the rectangle.”

Sculptors carve and polish stones, not to make beautiful stones; rather, the forms they make are the result of their search for the limits of their artistic capabilities.

– Kazutaka Uchida

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