WINDING DOWN

Towards the end of the day Mark and Gary agree that they have taken the sculpture to the point where it needs to be bagged up, crated, and shipped to Gary’s studio in California. There he will oversee the process of drying the wood before the final carving. It is amazing to think that the water still in the wood is from the Big Ditch and it will be transported across the country to be dried out in California. A huge lump of wood has been reduced to something easily lifted by one person and when Gary is finished with it, the vessel will only weigh around thirty pounds. That piece will take pride of place in the museum as the very first ever made from the BBT.


The Blakely Burl Tree Sculpture in roughed out state, ready for shipment to Soquel, CA, to Gary Steven's studio for finishing.  Photo: John McFadden

The day winds down in an anti-climactic process of sweeping shavings, putting away tools, checking and double checking that all has been done. A final beer in the long twilight on the porch and we talk through the remarkable events of the last two weeks. There are lots of laughs and the beer tastes better for it.


Winding down, Terry Martin sweeps up while Mark Lindquist photographs.  Photo: John McFadden

That night we drive to the West End Grille again for a final meal of fried okra, blackened fish and enormous shrimp, all washed down with more cold beer. Life is good. Not for the first time I sit back and soak up the uniquely American energy that flows around me. Sport constantly runs on the big screens and once more I shake my head at the stop-start nature of the game they call football where hardly anybody ever kicks a ball. I comment on this, but nobody is impressed. In this enormous and complex land, where even the World Series involves only one country, other cultures seem very far away.


(Left to right) John McFadden, Terry Martin, Mark Lindquist, Kathy Lindquist at West End Grille, Quincy Florida.  Photo: Gary Stevens

I can see through into the kitchen where the staff are throwing huge steaks on the grill and filling enormous salad bowls with enough vegetation to feed a horse, all the time laughing and joking loudly. The restaurant is filled with that American brand of can-do energy, a kind of “watch-me” professionalism where skills are on show and pride at a job well done is openly celebrated. I can’t help thinking that is exactly how the Burl Tree team has gone about their work. It’s very different to the more understated way of working where I come from and I marvel both at how familiar American life seems to me, yet how foreign I feel here.


Terry Martin, at Lindquist Studios, reflects on his experiences in America.  Photo: John McFadden