Brick By The Number$

We need your help to get The Whole Wall up on the wall!

Over four years ago, Cloud County and Concordia citizens began collaborating on one of the largest art projects ever undertaken as a group. They have done a spectacular job. The artists completed the carving earlier this Spring.

Cloud Ceramics, the brick manufacturing plant, has done a marvelous job of firing this project, all 2300 sq ft of it. Mark Collette, out at the plant, has managed to keep up with all these pieces, even laying them out at the plant for our viewing pleasure. He has that artistic knack of being able to sight select among nearly 6900 brick where each piece goes.

The Cloud County Historical Museum is now taking donations to cover the more than expected cost of installing this half a block of artwork depicting Cloud County's History. It's expected this wall will be a large draw for tourism through the area, especially for events such as the Sampler Festival. So far, in kind donations have kept the actual monies spent to one fifth of it's real value in dollars.

History is what you make it! Be a real Kansas Pioneer! Any thing you can do to help is more than appreciated.

It's a Relief

As you may have guessed, the artists are complete in the carving phase and wait with bated breath for the go on the mystical installation to come! Meanwhile, some of our onlooking assistants have begun their own brick carving...kudos to you!

Laying Up Brick Murals

Mara did an installation in Charlotte,NC with a couple masons,Colley and Willie,brothers-in-law for 60 years! These 8' x 15' pieces were all the double size sculpture brick and used colored mortar......

The Whole Wall Cowcatcher

We've been back the better part of a week and somehow carving...the train is coming into view. Certainly have had a lot of stops with everybody coming to view the final stages of our working on this part of the project. Phylis and Dick Cyphers have been helping us dig our way down the tracks to the station. Made good headway today even with the distraction of setting up for our talks on making a living as working artists....

For you that haven't ever thought about it...about 1% of American artists make over $25,000./per year. That's about 6-12,000 artists in every field of endeavor. That's actors, dancers, writers, poets, graphic artists, painters, and us sculptors,of course.

KAKE TV and presentations

Today we were interviewed and filmed by KAKE channel 10 Wichita about the whole wall project.
This will be aired on Sunday, April 6th, at 10 PM on Channel 10/ Wichita(Channel 6 in Concordia).. Tune in or be tuned out. Or is it be there or be square? We hope you will tune in and see us carving on the tube.

This Friday April 4th we will both be doing presentations on our past projects for college and high school students in the cook theatre at the Cloud County Community College campus. We invite everyone and all to come join in the fun. 9:30 to 10:30 AM.
A fun day working , carving and visiting......

HOW TO INSTALL A BRICK MURAL

Brick color on the mural for The Whole Wall Project:
Cloud Ceramic's Crimson Dark Ironspot

Mortar Mix: (three bag batch)
1 Bag Design Mix 80# ( 3 bags / mix usually )
1 ½ # Davis Color Black + 1/2# Davis Color Dk. Brown #6059

1/3 bottle dry block / 3 bag batch—caution/ makes the mortar wetter
( dry block helps waterproof the mortar & retain the color /makes it easier to cut and clean).
Make sure the panel is secured / it would take months to get recarved brick back to you.
Panel is numbered from lower left corner on the top of the bed:
brick a-1/ a-2/a-3/a-4 thru a-12. Second course b-1/ b-2 / b-3….. + Roman # section ie III etc.
Lay at least the first palette out on the floor dry…. It’s important to see if all the pieces are turned the right way.
Lay the first course dry in the frame to figure the joint size needed: ¼ to 3/8 size joint is recommended.

Keep joints full of mortar….after it stiffens (about every 3 to 6 courses), cut flush with the flow of the design.
Put in wall ties every three courses.
Stand back frequently to see if everything is lined up.
When finished, brush dry.

Mason to clean panel after it sets and cures. Apply a sealer like Fabrikem to give it extra protection ( 1 Gal. /125 sq. Ft. mist on with a Hudson sprayer.

Making Tracks,Trestles,& Cowcatcher

Brick Carving Accessorizing

This is the assorted carving set that is the basis for any up and coming brick sculptor. Raiding a fine chef's kitchen or farrier's work barn is also a good place to start in accessorizing one's work bag.Pick out a pair or two of the hot new Croc shoes and you are to die for the Spring season!

Back on Project

We are back in Concordia, Kansas to finish the last 20'x20' of the Wall Mural. This week it's the train engine we have to carve.Get back to the house...we have heat, light, and Aline has left a beautiful bouquet of yellow daffodils on the dining table to greet our return.

Enter your idea to name THE WALL PROJECT for the Cloud County Historical Society Museum......the best entry will get a prize! Join in the opportunity to add your mark in the Cloud County community's history.NAME THE WALL PROJECT in your comments below!

Monday at the CCCC Art Dept. Studio: Slow start with a tidy up of the studio. Barbara Stevens ran in to welcome us back. Surveyed the new batch of brick on the easel. Where's the hose? Where's the nozzle? Panel needs an extra course across the top....do we remember how to do this?

Jet lag/travel exhaustion...need a lunch...El Puerto's comes to mind. We happen to spot Dana Brewer coming in...he fills us in on the color changes and suggests we might want to see what is making everybody happy on the deal since the firing. Decide to vere off to Cloud Ceramics right after lunch to review the new flashed color on the panel. Mark Colette comes zooming up on his forklift to say hi.

The Review: The new brick color enhanced by flashing, solves the firing irregularities that have come about in the long process of the carving schedule. Mark points out a few brick we need to carve to fill in between expansion joints on the sunflower section. That'll be a Friday after lunch deal. We'll bring our carving tools...Mark will have fresh brick for us to work on right outside.The doorway and sunflowers we carved on the last trip are all laid out. Wow!

Now,back to the studio...finally we resolve ourselves to a startup and begin scraping the excess shims from the panel surface. Dave Walker comes in after his work in time to help lay up the final course across the top. We stretch out the paper sketch across the top of the panel....fit it on the wall so the tracks line up with the previous section. An hour of tracing...an hour or two of redrawing on the clay with a carpenter's pencil. Away with the paper, a good hosing, finally ,to resoften the surface for carving. Lucky us, this is the best clay for tolerating drying and rewetting so many times. Where to begin?... it's 8 PM...yes, tomorrow!

Tuesday: Make adjustments on the tracks and cow catcher. Start defining the curve, decide to add the roadbed for the tracks...add brush along the bottom with a variety of creatures.

Wednesday: Endless roadbed grading..cattleguard rehashing and brush cutting. Dick and Phylis Cyphers came by to do some deep digging with us in the afternoon. Stopped at 8 and decided the $1.99 Wednesday QFC country fried steak special was too good to pass up. Hauled in to order and deja vu, Dick and Phylis were sitting there enjoying the same ambiance at a $1.99 delicious!

Thursday: Out the gate slow this morning...working the cattle guard in a confused state. Decided a break carving Brick Mouse was in order while Catharine helped put on the tail. Brick Mouse is the mascot responsible for things that go awry in the studio. More on her escapades later. Catharine working the coal car wheels along the top left side of the panel.

Aline Luecke whizzed in for her usual pictoral photo journal update for the Historical Museum archives. Lunch again at El Puertos...I am so hungry I could eat my way through town.

Barely back to the Art Bldg when Catharine got an SOS call from Mark. Come by the brick yard to help figure out a section that was not quite lining up on one edge. Somebody, like brick mouse, misnumbered the brickman's coveralls. Got the puzzle realigned...whew! We revieiwed tomorrow's options on the small number of brick needing to be recarved.

Did I say Mark and crew had another fifty feet of mural laid out on the ground? Even I was amazed(that's the word) to see fifty of brick mural stretching east and then west of me in the field alongside the brick plant! He showed us the flashing that will eventually be the new color for the full length of the mural. For the first time I spotted the sycamore tree with all the kids under and in it. It did actually all fit together !!!

Friday: Yep,back to carving train parts this morning...me on the cow catcher...Catharine on the coal car wheels. What can I say, it's a lot like raking the yard for a week. After the Numero Uno lunch at El Puerto's, off to Cloud Ceramics to recarve the little miscreants that didn't stay where we needed them. Mark Collette and his assistant, Daren, had the side brick set up adjutting the new we had to cut. Daren helped slice away the preliminaries....then to it. We had four different areas to redo, all totalled 32 new pieces. Mark stayed to help number and palettize the fresh cuts to be drilled next week. Two thirty to after 4:30...we are pooped and our carving day has yet to really begin. Another coffee round at Mickie D's and a sandwich. We're back at the studio now on swing shift...hoping it won't be the graveyard shift!

Saturday: Got it going at ten...Dick and Phylis Cyphers on team to help. Can't remember how the day went, except ,finally got those engine wheels carved by nighttime. Carol Urban worked on the engine barrel with Catharine....on and on we scraped. Time out for a pizza delivery on a late lunch, then back to it. I finished the lower brush with additions of various wildlife...bunny,bird with eggs in a nest, and a couple ground squirrels tucked up in the branches. I put Phylis on carving another brick mouse up at the sink counter. Ten oclock, we were done but for a few touch ups....phew!!

Sunday: Tidied up the engine with the crew. Phylis and Dick brushed off the extra crumbs fallen everywhere. One o'clock, the take down gang moseyed in. We helped Dave Walker get ready on the set up, then away to finish packing, and off to the Salina Airport to get me on Easter Break in Texas.

FLASH FIRED

The Blade Empire / March 7th , 2008 Flash Fired

A portion of the whole wall, depicting sunflowers, has been flash fired, and is at Cloud Ceramics, awaitingtransport to the Cloud County Historical Museum Annex. Catharine Magel and her assistant, Mara smith,are nearly finished carving the 140 foot long brick mural. ( Blade photo by Jessica LeDuc)

Sculpting of the Whole Wall nearing completion

Completion date for the Whole Wall Project in Concordia is set for April 5. The wall will be a three dimensional 140 foot longby approximately 20 foot high sculpted brick mural covering The Cloud County Historical Museum Annex East exterior wall which faces highway 81.The mural depicts key development events and rural cultural elements of Cloud County’s history from the founding in the 1860s to the present day.The artist, Catharine Magel and her assistant, Mara Smith, will be sculpting at the Cloud County Community College Art room March 10-14, March 17- 22, and March 31-April 5.Bricks for the wall are being flash fired at Cloud Ceramics. Ben Retter, assistant general manager said, throughout the whole wall project, Cloud Ceramics has continuously searched for opportunities to create a finished product with more than just curb appeal.“ This ‘WOW’ factor is primarily influenced by the incredible detail in the sculpting done by Catharine and her team.” Retter said, “ However after reviewing the mural brick that have been fired thus far, we felt that we could contribute substantially to the finished look of the wall by incorporating sheen and luster with the mural brick. Reduction firing or “flashing” these bricks will deepen the color and bring out the luster and sheen that complements the depth and detail of the carved bricks themselves. Many Smaller brick sculptures and carvings use flashed brickcolors for this very reason. This process will not have any impact on the timeline for the project and will result in an even more impressive” Whole Wall”.

The Why of THE WHOLE WALL PROJECT

My intent with this mural has been to find a universal theme within the history of Cloud County through its visual and actual history. This theme will relate to all viewers allowing a personal connection and interpretation between the viewer and the work. The planting of seeds has relationship to the past, present, and future, acting as a metaphor for hope, allowing the piece to remain timeless. Upon my visit to this area, I found the healing qualities of the land reflected in people who live there. This is significant to include in the work. The friendships and good relations that came out of the prison environment at the POW Camp speaks of our humanity as a whole and our ability to work together for the good of all even during times of war.
The strength we have, as humans to solve problems in times of need are evident as well in the running of the Orphan Train.
There are many clues in the work that hint at these universal ideals. The few I mentioned are the most prominent and other images back up these thoughts.
My interest with the brick mural project is to tap into the community’s intrinsic creativity, history, and culture in an attempt to produce a work of art that is accessible and has meaning for the public. I also see the potential to engage numerous community members in the creative process.
Participation helps build unity into community and can give voice to the community members. Without artistic voice, community grows silent. As we all create together and process, we bring together a new familiarity with the places we live in and with ourselves. This kind of Collective Collaboration enhances the vitality of a work of art and the community it serves. Written as part of the original proposal, by Catharine Magel

THE WALL

TheWhole Wall

By Tim Unruh
Salina Journal

CONCORDIA -- Using mostly handmade tools, Catharine Magel, Mara Smith and a legion of local volunteers are shaping tons of "green" bricks into a work of art for Cloud County.
Their shaving, gouging and slicing of 6,400 unfired bricks is the first step in creating a 140-foot mural that will depict the development of Concordia and Cloud County.

"It's one big giant puzzle," said Magel, 51, St. Louis.
She was commissioned last year by the Cloud County Historical Society to create what's called the Whole Wall Project. The artwork will cover the east wall of the Cloud County Museum Annex in downtown Concordia.
"I see it as a statement of our history and our values," said Dana Brewer, an attorney who is president of the historical society board.
From a studio at the Cloud County Community College art department, Magel and her assistant, Smith, a brick carver on the project, are creating art one brick at a time. The carving began nearly a year ago and should be completed next month. Once all sections are fired in the Cloud Ceramics kiln, the wall will be constructed and attached to the building.
The historical society will seek bids from brick masons and hopes to complete the $350,000 project by late summer.
About $110,000 has been raised through donations and fundraisers such as the sale of locally made quilts and personalized bricks for benches at the mural site. In-kind contributions, such as the special tools used to carve the bricks, have been received as well.
Local scenes depicted
"I think people are going to be amazed when they see it," Brewer said of the project, planning for which was begun four years ago.
He expects the wall to be a lure for tourists.
"We see it as a means to get them to take the next step to see other museums and attractions in the county," Brewer said.
Included in the mural are local scenes such as St. Joseph Catholic Church, the Nazareth Motherhouse, the Republican River bridge, Miltonvale Wesleyan College Administration Bldg., the Brown Grand Theatre, a bi-plane owned by aviator Charlie Blosser, Orphan Train riders and Minersville, which was a camp of coal miners in the late 1800s. The historical society plans a narrative to explain each element.
Magel spent weeks researching local history and meeting with project organizers before making her first sketch. Collaboration with project committee members brought about some additions to the mural after it was started, such as the guard house of the World War II German prisoner of war camp near Concordia.
The mural is arranged not chronologically, but as a visual flow that Magel describes as a "rhythmic line, like a graceful kind of feeling within all of the activity."
The bricks have been donated by Cloud Ceramics, which made them from soil taken from deposits of Dakota clay in the Concordia area. The bricks are 8 inches deep to allow depth in the carving.
Cloud Ceramics also donated the transportation of the bricks, which must go to and from the college art department, to the kiln, and into storage to await construction. The company built a 22-foot by 10-foot easel where the green bricks -- wet and soft enough to carve -- are stacked. As each section is completed, those bricks are removed from the easel, numbered and placed on pallets for the journey to the kiln.
The project is important to Cloud Ceramics, which has made bricks at Concordia since 1946 and today employs 70 people.
"A standard issue brick manufacturing company could not pull off a project of this scope," said Ben Retter, general manager. "We have a fantastic group of tenured employees. They have a strong understanding of the drying and firing process."
Without the brick company's help, he said, the project might have been too expensive to pursue.
"A project of this size and scope is really an expensive undertaking -- several hundred thousand dollars if you have it bid," Retter said. "When we heard the historical society wanted to do this, we wanted to do it locally."
The Whole Wall Project is viewed as more than something that will dress up Concordia. Barbara Stevens, head of the art department at the community college, said the project has been priceless for her students, and enrollment is up this year.
"I've had all of my students drop in on them to see them carve and see the progression of each section," Stevens said. "We've had some high schools come in and they've let the kids carve with the artists."
The college art department has invited 30 high schools to tour its studios and the brick plant in late January.
Stevens said she hopes to build an apprenticeship program with Cloud Ceramics "to show parents in this rural area that there is an avenue for students interested in ceramics to make a living off of this." And she plans to apply for grants to start an artist-in-residence program to demonstrate and teach brick sculpture at the college.
Mara Smith sees that as a reasonable goal, and hopes young people can be attracted to the art form.
Brick carving offers jobs for about 60 people in the western world, she said, "and most of us are in AARP."

Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by e-mail at tunruh@salina.com.

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Getting Ready

Dear Toto;
I have 10 more rosettes to cast in concrete and a five foot high winged lion to complete before my anticipated flight to Kansas(just about two weeks hence). It's been a slow dark winter and now it's light enough to see the mountains in the east, snowtipped in their scintillating brilliance....even Mt. Rainier is out of the clouds. I am back from the solstice of the dark...ready to fly!

The Kansas Krew awaits....

The Wall Project

Concordia,KS: The Wall Project:
Sculptural vignettes from Cloud County Kansas history carved in brick for the Cloud County Historical Society Museum.

Internationally known artist Catharine Magel of St. Louis,Mo. was commissioned for this community project. Carving began in early 2007 after nearly four years of planning. Brick Sculptor,Mara Smith of Seattle,WA was brought into this adventure in October 2007.

These two will be carving the last twenty by twenty feet section starting March 9,2008. Stop by to see our progress or help with the carving!