Maine granite sculpture destined for N.J. hospital

WALDOBORO – The chips were flying Tuesday as four stone artists finished carving a meandering stream into 20 tons of Maine granite that will wind up in a New Jersey hospital.

The massive project, worth more than $50,000, will be loaded onto a truck today to be taken to a sunlit hospital alcove surrounded by glass, located off a 300-foot corridor. Exotic plants, like African ferns and dwarf papyrus, and cherrywood benches will enhance the piece, said Robert Phippsburg, 68, of Bar Harbor, one of the artists behind the project.

“It’s been a dance of ideas,” he said as he explained the drawing and planning of the designs.

It’s also yet another marriage of two great Maine traditions connected to the landscape, quarrying and art. Maine granite can be found in the U.S. Capitol, the Chicago Board of Trade building and the Union Pacific Building in downtown Omaha, Neb.

For this project, five Maine stone sculptors worked on the salt-and-pepper-colored granite pieces, which they have carved by using mallets and chisels and grinding tools to create a piece that will decorate a meditation area for patients at the hospital in Paramus, N.J., expected to open in May.

Five slabs, varying in length from 6 to 10 feet and 3 to 6 inches thick, will be placed strategically so that water will flow along a winding stream, creating waterfalls along the way. The water will run into a small pool, then pour into a larger pool where the water will drain into a recycling system. Four major granite blocks support the slabs. Smaller pieces of river stone will surround the artwork.

The granite pieces, which originated from Mount Heagan in the Waldo County town of Prospect, came from a quarry owned by Rob Butterworth of Morrill.

The design was a collaborative effort between artists Phippsburg and Stephen Parmley, 50, of Waldoboro. Once the design was done, fellow stone carvers Norman Casas, 54, and J. Patrick Manley III, 50, both of Washington, got involved. Not present Tuesday was artist Dan Ucci of Pittston, who also worked on the granite piece.

All of the artists involved in the New Jersey project are members of the Maine Stone Workers Guild and have not worked together on a major work since the early 1990s, they said.

“They helped articulate it beautifully,” Phippsburg said of the artists who assisted.

The early planning for the piece began in Bar Harbor but the actual carving began in October at Parmley’s Waldoboro home. The largest of nine primary stones weighs about 5 tons, Parmley said.

The idea for the design was inspired by an earlier piece that Parmley had entered in a competition two years ago for The Mid Coast Hospital near Cooks Corner in Brunswick. Although Parmley was one of the finalists, he did not win the commission. But an architect involved in that project contacted him about the New Jersey assignment, which was paid by for the hospital.

Sometime today, Ferraiolo Construction of Rockland will bring a crane to Parmley’s home to lift the granite pieces through the roof of a temporary studio and load them onto a truck from Dysart’s Trucking in Bangor.

When it arrives at the Valley Hospital’s Robert & Audrey Luckow Pavilion in Paramus, the piece will be assembled, “creating a healing environment, a little oasis,” Phippsburg said.