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George shares his newest piece..walking the dogs

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

George Carruth discusses his newest piece, "Walking the Dogs"

George shares his newest piece.  He has  captured the mood of walking the dogs, and of how what can seem to be a chore can actually be one of the most delightful moments of the day.  We often find that walking in the rain, smelling the scent of the rain, the earth and the plants..especially in the night air..is particularly quieting and meditative in many ways.  An everyday moment that brings great pleasure.

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Halloween Stories Shared by Fans

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

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  • Halloween is a favorite holiday in our household.  George carves out the guts of many pumpkins so the rest of us simply have the pleasure of carving our images.  It’s great fun to see them come to life & then just sit back and enjoy the evening.
  • A bit ago I asked for “Favorite Halloween Stories” promising to share them  and  give the storyteller of the  most favorite story the gift of one of our halloween designs.   All of the stories bring a smile and, as is typical of us, we couldn’t choose just one.  Instead, three stories have been chosen as favorites.   Thank you ALL so much for sharing. 

    

    Our Favorite Halloween Design, "Terrifying Trio"

  • Kathy Farnham wrote: When I was a kid we had a neighbor who rented a huge popcorn popper and they had cider and donuts. He dressed up like a circus clown. We were scared to death but it was worth it to get the fresh pop corn. Soo fun!
  • Paula Renfro shares this story and has been chosen as a WINNER:  For my nephews Halloween theme birthday party I dressed as a scarecrow and was sitting in the front yard before all the kids arrived. They would walk by and barely take notice. Whenever just one was around and had their back to me I would make a noise or touch them real quick like and when they turned around I would be perfectly still again. Some would go get another child and tell them and they’d both come back but they could never catch me talking or moving. Towards the end of the party as a group walked by I stood up real slow and grabbed one of them. It was hard not to laugh when they would get right up in my face to see if I was real or not. I love Halloween
  • From Paula Miller:   So, I had my mom, dad, and older brother who all wanted a cut of my candy. They would each take turns taking me around the neighborhood to get candy. I would first go out with my mom in the costume that I got to pick from the store. Then, I would go out with my dad with my stand-by costume. And, then, I would go out with my brother in my stand-by costume #2. There would be a ton of candy that would cover the living room floor, but I hardly got any of it.  All that work and I didn’t even get to reap the rewards. One year, I remember being a My Little Pony, a clown, and a race car driver all in one night! Amazingly, the neighbors never really caught on…or so we all thought.  I’m sure we were the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays. We get over 500 kids in our neighborhood. That’s a lot of candy!
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    Halloween at Garden Smiles

  • Linda Green wrote:   There used to be a house way back in the woods in our neighborhood. It was a really creepy path down a dirt road that was not lit by any streetlights. At the end of the road was a family that gave out home made candy apples. We would come home with sticky, red hands and faces with our teeth stuck together from the candy. It was so worth the journey!
  • From Cheryl Keiter:  When my children were small(and still today) I always wore a costume to take them out trick-or-treating One year we were in a small Iowa town and they had the FULL SIZE candy bars. My kids still remember that year.
  • Laurie Burnard shares this & we agree:  It has to be having no boundaries OR time restrictions…canvassing all the neighborhoods with pillow case in hand. Running back home and emptying the goodies on the living room floor (much to my Father’s delight) and heading back out and doing it all over again!
  • From Wendy Zgorzelski-Brown:  We still do Halloween BIG at my house. It takes a lot of people to help, but all the neighborhood kids love it. We have a grave yard in our front yard, with all the headstones and rickety old fence, and then to get candy (full size candy bars) you have to walk up the driveway, that is enclosed to look like a tunnel, with all the smoke, and in the tunnel are people dressed in costume that you don’t see until you’re right up to them. And then at the end of the tunnel is the coffin with a vampire who opens the lid and scares you!!! We have loud music playing and our friend talking on a microphone and you can hear it throughout the subdivision. There are many little kids who won’t come near our house, so I take candy to them, but its so much fun to see the looks on their faces. Even my 5 year old grand daughter likes to get in the coffin to scare the kids. we love Halloween!! 

    

    Hungry Birds Enjoying Fall's Harvest

  • Janet Ashton shared a WINNER of a story:   It was our first Halloween in Waterville. I was taking my daughter Trick-or-Treating in the old historical, and supposedly haunted area, not far from the Columbia House. We were looking in the windows of the Columbia trying to find ghosts but had no luck, so we went back to Trick-or-Treating. As we approached the next house we giggled about how great it would have been to see a ghost. Just then a loud ‘RRRROOOOOAAAARRRRR! and reaching hands came up from two piles of leaves. We screamed and ran away, while the home owners laughed hysterically and told us to come back. After our hearts calmed a bit we finally did go back and I let them know it was the best Halloween scare I had in years!!
  • Trish Weinstein shares:   My favorite memory is of Halloween when I was a youngster and Dad would drive my brothers and sisters and I to my Grandparents house so they could see us in our costumes and then to the Catholic rectory for donuts and cider. Next was a stop to the local diner for ice cream cones before we went home to our small subdivision where we continued the trick or treating until our bags were overflowing with candy! But the best part was the day after when all the neighborhood kids got together to trade candy! And this was back when all our costumes were handmade! Loved it !
  • Denise Burrs:   When I think of Halloween I always think of my sister Shannon dressing like a nun. Not sure if she was a pregnant nun but funny “nun” the less!
  • When we were kids, says Paula Stapleton Gossman, we’d get to have a “parade” around the school yard. All the kids got to put our costumes on and walk the sidewalk around the outside of the fenced in play area while parents would come and park on the streets and watch the kids walk by. We would get home from school and take our “trick or treat bags” aka pillowcases, and head out right before it got dark. We would travel as far as our legs could carry us. We would usually not get home til around 9 or so.. That was back when parents didn’t have to worry so much about their kids. We would all sit in a circle on the living room floor and pour our goodies out. I’d trade all my icky black jelly beans and anything gummy to my brother for stuff like candy corn and if you were really lucky you’d get a popcorn ball! Good times!!
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  Regina Wiseman our Final WINNER:  When my children were little, they had a play house with a front porch that we would turn into the Witch’s Hut. We had it decorated with all kinds of fun things inside as if witches really lived there and on the outside was a grave yard and… ghosts, etc. My mother, the neighbor lady, and myself would dress up as witches around a cauldron with dry ice and hand out candy and let the kids take a tour. This was done in an afternoon so that it wasn’t too scary. Every year the traffic got more and more. The distance people came was amazing. When we moved away, we left the play house there. My neighbor lady called to tell us that the new owners were having the playhouse blessed to get rid of possible demons.
• Jerry “Dougherty” Vogel:  one Halloween I made popcorn & thought I had plenty to hand out but I ran out & started giving apples. One little fellow came to the door, smelled the popcorn but when I handed him an apple, in a very disappointed voice he said “Oh! appples”.
• Have a wonderful Halloween & enjoy this beautiful Fall weather.  Carve those pumpkins, eat lots of pie, & laugh with all of the children.  It is delightful to read & share your stories, thank you from George, Deb, and all of us here at Carruth Studio.

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  Buzz Off A Favorite Plaque of George's Cast in Stone

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Stone Faces

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Garden Smile Plaque cast in stone

Too Much Fun Cast Stone Plaque remains George's Favorite

This gargoyle whistles at people below from the National Cathedral

I’m probably overdue for a new face plaque. The very first face plaque was the Garden Smile. So far, it has remained the most popular of all the faces. After all, smiles and laughter are contagious.

From our variety of smiling plaques, my favorite is still Too Much Fun.  Not only does it make me smile, it has an architecturally historical feeling about it, reminiscent of something carved above the doorway on an old stone building.

Like most old buildings with multiple carvings on the exterior, there is usually one quirky carving hidden among the rest.
Usually these uncharacteristic images are placed around the side or discretely moved up to a higher position.  Historically, the carved images on a building were carefully thought out. Cathedrals, government buildings and libraries would all have sculptures that portrayed what might be going on inside. Occasionally the sculptors were given just a little bit of creative freedom on the less important areas. Anyone who has visited the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. has witnessed the creativity of the master sculptors.  Some of the gargoyles high on the Cathedral are ”unusual”, like Darth Vader, a stone camera, a young girl with braces on her teeth or the playful likeness of one of the stone carvers whistling and flirting with the young women passing below. You will also find two unflattering portraits of carvers ex-girlfriends.

Stone Camera high on the National Cathedral

Even on the most prominent commercial and religious structures, somewhere hidden among the carvings that portray power or spiritual enlightenment, you might find something a little less serious, like Too Much Fun.

(To see the gargoyles sculpted on the National Cathedral seek out Guide to Gargoyles & other grotesques by the Washington National Cathedral Guidebooks.)

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