Page 10 - Leisure Living Magazine July 2017

Charles Herndon
Continued from page 9
Chuck obtained much of his stone from there. “That quarry was once the largest producer of agricultural lime in the world,” he said. “Then the stone was used in the steelmaking process. But now it’s not active because it was costing too much
to pump the water out of the pit.
“I ordered truck loads of stone from that quar-
ry for erosion con-
trol, (the Herndon’s home is right on the lake) but I would set aside rocks that were of interest to me. “A friend would also bring me rocks from the quarry and I would go there myself and pick out rocks,” he continued. And some of Herndon’s rocks that he used for his various pieces, came right off
his Lake Erie beach.
“Some of those rocks are 3.5 billion years old,”
he said. “I had a geologist and a mineralogist come here and tell me that. They are erratic rocks and that means those rocks did not come from the
place where they originated.
“Those rocks are all from mountains
North of the Great Lakes which no longer exist. They are some of the earliest rocks,” Herndon continued.
As you walk into the gallery one of the first things you see is a huge stone carving that is called “For this I traded diamonds.” “I used $2,100 worth of diamond blades to carve that and it took months to complete,” Herndon reported.
“I also carved a lot of alabaster,” he ex- plained. “One of the reasons I carved alabas- ter was that I had fallen off the roof of my studio and broke both legs.” A friend had
then gotten Herndon seated in his studio with the two broken legs and he did alabaster carving.
“I made 15-20 art pieces out of alabaster and they sold right away. They were cheaper,” Herndon said.
Almost all of the wood that Chuck uses comes from the island. “I used to do a wood piece once a year,” he said. “Now I have all of those big, beauti- ful logs back there and I’m sure I’m not going to get to them all. That’s for the next guy.”
Maybe there will be a next guy and maybe there won’t be, but one thing is for sure and that is Chuck Herndon, with Cindy’ s help, will keep producing art as long as he can.
You can reach the gallery at 419-746-2249 or look them up on Facebook or the web.
Get to Know The Artist
Not only is Chuck Herndon an out- standing artist with a national reputation, he has backed up his work with several college degrees.
He earned a Bache-
lor of Fine Arts degree
in sculpture from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Case West- ern Reserve University before earning a Masters of Fine Arts in sculpture degree from Syracuse University.
Herndon then taught at the Columbus College of Art and Design for 34 years. Through the Co- lumbus College he participated as a guest lecturer and teacher at the 1995 International Stone Carv- ing Symposium in Kasama, Japan, where his work was also exhibited. He retired from the college in 2007.
Herndon taught at the Columbus College of Art and Design for three days a week and then of- ten returned to the studio on Kelleys Island for the other four days of the week to work on his various art projects.
Herndon’s sculptures, paintings and photog- raphy have been exhibited in galleries across the country. In addition, his work can often be seen in private collections as well as in museums and corporate collections.
Chuck Herndon with Shy and Brutus
10 |LeisureLiving July 2017
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On The Cover:
“Beached”
a 2016 acrylic by Charles Herndon